CPSIA

Minga Fair Trade Imports has issued a recall of wooden flipping acrobat toys because the surface paint contains lead in excess of federal standards.  The recalled flipping acrobat toys are made of painted wood and are 8.5 inches tall.  The toys consist of two rectangular wooden sticks connected by a wood crosspiece near one end and a coyote, super hero, woodpecker or yellow bird wooden cartoon character suspended by nylon string at the other end.  The toys were sold nationwide at independent children’s stores and gift shops from September 2008 through May 2013.

Consumers are advised to immediately take the recalled flipping acrobat toys away from children and return them to Minga Fair Trade Imports for a full refund.  Minga Fair Trade Imports can be contacted at 855-738-5260 or online at www.mingaimports.com.  The toys were manufactured in Peru.

The Chanler Group, on behalf of citizen enforcers and other whistleblower clients, seeks to uncover toxic chemical exposures and government fraud in our everyday lives, to hold the offenders responsible for such violations of state and federal law, such as the CPSIA, accountable to the public, and to effectuate change for a cleaner environment.

Glideaway has issued a recall of Sleepharmony Metal Youth Beds in pink because the surface paint contains lead in excess of federal standards.  The bed is a twin size, made of metal, and has three pink heart-shaped designs on both the headboard and the footboard.  The recalled beds were manufactured between December 2011 and May 2013 and bear the model number #MB-YPT-R1; the manufacture date code can be found on a yellow label affixed to the inside of the metal side rail, and the model number can be found on the box and the instruction sheet.

Consumers are advised to stop using the product and contact Glideaway for instructions for exchanging the bed or receiving a full refund.  Glideaway can be contacted at 800-428-5222 or www.glideaway.com/recall.  The beds were sold at furniture and other retail stores nationwide from February 2012 to June 2013 for between $120 to $170.  The beds were manufactured in China.

The Chanler Group, on behalf of citizen enforcers and other whistleblower clients, seeks to uncover toxic chemical exposures and government fraud in our everyday lives, to hold the offenders responsible for such violations of state and federal law, such as the CPSIA, accountable to the public, and to effectuate change for a cleaner environment.

The U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works held a hearing earlier this month titled “Strengthening Public Health Protections by Addressing Toxic Chemical Threats,” with witnesses presenting testimony for and against the Chemical Safety Improvement Act (CSIA).  The bulk of the hearing was taken up by concerns about preemption of state law, as well as a lack of deadlines set forth in the CSIA.

Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), the chair of the committee, said that she would not permit legislation that usurped the ability of California and other states to regulate chemicals, and questioned the presence of industry witnesses at the hearing, wondering if they advocated looser restrictions in order to make more money at the expense of public health.  She also criticized the lack of specific deadlines in the proposed legislation for EPA regarding the proposed testing and evaluation system, as well in prioritizing chemicals of concern.

Maureen Gorsen of Alston & Bird LLP, a former employee of Cal/EPA, testified that the waiver system described in CSIA, which will allow state governments to opt out of preemption, would allow California to enforce its own laws under CSIA.  California Attorney General Kamala Harris, as well as officials from the Department of Toxic Substances Control, has expressed concerns over whether or not the proposed barriers to apply for a waiver are insurmountable.

Sen. David Vitter (R-La.), one of the authors of the CSIA, said that he was already at work on updates to the bill in order to move a compromise forward.

The Chanler Group represents citizen enforcers who, acting in the public interest, commence actions against businesses offering products for sale in California that contain chemicals known to cause cancer or reproductive harm without first providing the health hazard warning required by Proposition 65. Citizen enforcers bringing Proposition 65 actions in the public interest may obtain a Court Judgment imposing civil penalties, an injunction requiring reformulation of products, and/or provision of health hazard warnings. The Chanler Group has represented citizen enforcers of Proposition 65 for more than twenty years.

California officials have expressed concerns over some provisions of the proposed Chemical Safety Improvement Act (CSIA), which was introduced last month in Congress as a series of reforms to the Toxic Substances Control Act.  A representative of California’s Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) stated these concerns in a letter to the Office of California Senator Dianne Feinstein.

The main area of concern, according to the letter, is the expanded authority that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) would have to preempt state and local chemical regulations.

If passed, CSIA would  prohibit states from enforcing existing chemical regulations after EPA issues their safety determination, even when state regulations are consistent with EPA’s findings.  The CSIA would also preclude states from issuing new prohibitions or restrictions on chemical substances that the EPA’s schedule of safety assessments identifies as “high priority.” 

“States should be allowed to…enforce their regulations until the Administrator for US EPA promulgates a rule establishing necessary restrictions,” the letter stated.  “States should not be barred from imposing regulations on chemical substances for which they have already evaluated the safety and determined that prohibitions or restrictions are necessary to protect public health or environment merely because the Administrator has released a schedule…”

The letter also stated a need for clarification “regarding what constitutes a ‘prohibition or restriction on the manufacture, processing, or distribution in commerce or use of a chemical substance’” as types of state actions intended to be preempted under the proposed Act.  California’s health hazard warning requirement on products containing chemicals known to the State of California to cause cancer or reproductive harm “could be considered a restriction on the use of a chemical substance, which is far too broad an interpretation of this phrase,” the letter said.

The Act does contain criteria for waivers from the preemption provisions; DTSC expressed concern that “the bar has been set too high” for waivers.  The letter called the criteria “nearly impossible to meet.”

See below for the letter in full.

The Chanler Group represents citizen enforcers who, acting in the public interest, commence actions against businesses offering products for sale in California that contain chemicals known to cause cancer or reproductive harm without first providing the health hazard warning required by Proposition 65. Citizen enforcers bringing Proposition 65 actions in the public interest may obtain a Court Judgment imposing civil penalties, an injunction requiring reformulation of products, and/or provision of health hazard warnings. The Chanler Group has represented citizen enforcers of Proposition 65 for more than twenty years.

Five individuals and five corporations were charged in an indictment unsealed last month in Brooklyn, N.Y. , for allegedly importing and trafficking hazardous and counterfeit toys for sale in the United States, in violation of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA), the Department of Justice announced.

For almost ten years, Chenglan Hu, Hua Fei Zhang, Xiu Lan Zhang, Guan Jun Zhang, and Jun Wu Zhang, along with their companies Family Product USA Inc., H.M. Import USA Corp., ZCY Trading Corp., Zone Import Corp., and ZY Wholesale Inc., allegedly imported and sold toys that contained excessive levels of lead and/or phthalates, easily accessible battery compartments, and other hazards.  They also allegedly imported and sold counterfeit toys featuring Dora the Explorer, SpongeBob SquarePants, and Disney/Pixar movies such as “Toy Story” and “Cars.”

The case will be tried in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York.

The CPSIA was passed in 2008 to modernize the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) and establish more stringent consumer product safety standards and safety requirements, with a particular focus on children’s products.  Under the CPSIA, it is illegal for any person or company to manufacture, sell, distribute, or import into the United States any children’s toy or child care product containing more than .1% of the phthalates DEHP, DBP, BBP, DINP, DIDP, or DnOP or lead concentrations greater than 90 ppm in paint and surface coatings.

The Chanler Group, on behalf of citizen enforcers and other whistleblower clients, seeks to uncover toxic chemical exposures and government fraud in our everyday lives, to hold the offenders responsible for such violations of state and federal law, such as the CPSIA, accountable to the public, and to effectuate change for a cleaner environment.