Responding to Parents pleas for help, the US House of Representatives passed H.R. 4040.  Dubbed as the Consumer Product Safety Modernization Act, this bill would tighten product safety standards should it become law.

This bill specifically calls for a ban on lead in toys.  Please note that such a ban, according to this bill, is simply a dramatic reduction in permitted lead levels in toys.  It also provides for mandatory third party testing for certain children’s products.

The bill also requires reform at the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), which is something that has been long overdue.  It’s a known fact that the CPSC was neutered years ago and lacked any real authority.  This bill would restore some of their authority by improving their ability to recall unsafe products, raise civil penalties for product safety violators, and allow for criminal prosecution in the most severe cases.

Of course, this bill would also increase funding for the CPSC.  I’m not big on this idea of giving them more money initially.  As is the case on most levels of Government, an independent third party performance audit should be completed before deciding on increasing ones budget.  If problems are not first identified, how can one make an accurate assessment on how much money it would take to correct?

What is good about this bill is that it will drastically reduce the legal amount of lead permitted in children’s toys.  As it stands now, 600 PPM (parts per million) of total weight are permitted in toys.  This would be reduced to 300 PPM after this bill becomes law.  Four years after this bill becomes law, the maximum allowable levels of lead in toys would be further reduced to 100 PPM.

Despite my thoughts on giving the CPSC an increased budget without a performance audit, I support this bill.  Lowering the legal levels of lead in toys is something that I believe will eventually lead to lower levels of Autism in the United States.  And this bill would force corporations to care about product safety as much as they do their bottom line.

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