Thursday, November 8, 2007

pissed off

Does blogger allow you to use language like that on here? I can't remember if I've seen anyone else doing it. But the constant recalls of items for children due to excessive lead paint really pisses me off. Not that the items are being recalled, mind you. But what the hell is anyone doing using lead paint in children's stuff?

I'm on the CPSC's email list for child & infant product recalls. CPSC=US Consumer Product Safety Commission. Every so often, they send me an email with several items on it that have been recalled. And the vast majority of them are for lead paint. And all but one item so far that I've noticed has been made in China.

Granted, the vast majority of products being sold in the US are manufactured in China now. And whatever my/your stance on that for economic reasons is beside the point. My point here is that if you are the CEO of a US company, and you are trying to cut corners so that you can give your stockholders big earnings, so you ship all your manufacturing overseas because they use slave cheap labor there, you had better be paying attention to the quality of the products. Sure, all the plastic crap is meant to break so that you'll have to buy your kid another one. I don't even care about that right now.

WHO is deciding to use lead paint? Where is it coming from? Are the US companies like Mattel and FisherPrice (and they are far from being the only ones) calling for lead paint in their specs for the toys? My guess is probably not. So are the Chinese factory managers/owners substituting lead paint because it's cheaper, easier to come by, or some other reason? And if so, where the hell are the US companies' CEOs, managers, bazillions of people who are paid the big bucks, when it comes to checking on what's actually going on in the factories?

And God forbid that the government in general, and the Consumer Product Safety Commission in particular, try to protect children from businesses that just want to do their thing as cheaply as possible with no regard for the effect on children. Nancy Nord, who is head of CPSC, said that "a Democratic bill that would expand her agency 'could have the unintended consequence of hampering, rather than furthering, consumer product safety.'" See the original article in Newsweek here. And UPI reports that Nancy Nord and her predecessor took nearly 30 trips financed by industry groups. All of this makes me so mad, I feel my blood pressure rising.

This post has been working its way through my brain for a while now; I finally had to vent. I may add more in this vein another day, but for now, I'm putting it out there. If this is an issue that you care about, I encourage you to contact your reps and senators.

4 comments:

Peevish McSnark said...

Yeah! Everything that you just said, with knobs on!

Why is lead paint still available anyway? Is there a reason for it?

Anonymous said...

Hi Mrs might i add...?

I tagged you for a meme. You know, something to do with all that free time you have with the baby. And, the impending return to work. No pressure though as you've already shared 100 things about yourself. 105?

Oh, and happy birthday last weekend. Did you get the macbook?

And, I share your sentiments exactly on this post. We complain about the same thing in our house, too. Something has got to change.

Michelle and the City said...

a friend of mine told me about this (she has a young baby at home and had been paying attention) and i couldn't believe. and the stuff is still on shelves! i mean really? can't we get our act together on this one!?

might I add...? said...

Hi Dee,

Oh yeah, I'll be getting right on that meme. Free time...I'll be posting about that when I get a minute! Let me just think of some (more) random things.

Thanks for the birthday wishes! I did get the MacBook! And it's lovely. And fast!

And Dee and Michelle,
As to this lead paint thing, I think we are going to have to get things to change, because unfortunately, the current administration isn't interested in protecting anyone except their cronies and major donors. I don't know how to do this, but people who care are going to have to start rocking the boat on this one.