Protecting Consumers

Feb 8, 2016

Top 400 Taxpayers See Tax Rates Rise, But There’s More to the Story

As Americans were gathering party supplies to greet the New Year, the Internal Revenue Service released their annual report of cumulative tax data reported on the 400 tax r...

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Feb 4, 2016

Chlorine Bleach Plants Needlessly Endanger 63 Million Americans

Chlorine bleach plants across the U.S. put millions of Americans in danger of a chlorine gas release, a substance so toxic it has been used as a chemical weapon. Greenpeace’s new repo...

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Jan 25, 2016

U.S. Industrial Facilities Reported Fewer Toxic Releases in 2014

The Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) data for 2014 is now available. The good news: total toxic releases by reporting facilities decreased by nearly six percent from 2013 levels. Howe...

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Jan 22, 2016

Methane Causes Climate Change. Here's How the President Plans to Cut Emissions by 40-45 Percent.

UPDATE (Jan. 22, 2016): Today, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) released its proposed rule to reduce methane emissions...

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more news

Senators Press Federal Agencies on Diacetyl

Sep 12, 2007 by Matthew Madia

Sens. Ted Kennedy (D-MA) and Patty Murray (D-WA) have written to the FDA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) expressing their concern over diacetyl exposure and asking the agencies to take action. (More from the Pump Handle blog here.) The federal government, the popcorn industry and public and occupational health advocates have known for some time that exposure to diacetyl — a chemical used to give microwave popcorn its buttery flavor — can cause severe lung problems for workers in the popcorn manufacturing industry.

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Latest Watcher

Sep 12, 2007 by Matthew Madia

Be sure to check out the latest issue of our biweekly newsletter, The Watcher. Regulatory policy articles this time: Federal Agencies Knew of Diacetyl Dangers and Kept Silent Bush's Anti-Regulatory Ideology under Increasing Scrutiny It's Industry vs. Consumers and Health Specialists in National Ozone Hearings

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Startling Increase in Adverse Effects of Drugs

Sep 11, 2007 by Matthew Madia

Yesterday, The Chicago Tribune published a story about a new medical study that has found a dramatic increase in adverse effects associated with prescription drugs. According to the article, "The annual number of 'serious adverse event' reports jumped to 89,842 in 2005 from 34,966 in 1998. Meanwhile, the number of 'fatal adverse drug events' increased nearly threefold to 15,107 in 2005 from 5,519 in 1998."

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Federal Agencies Knew of Diacetyl Dangers and Kept Silent

Federal regulatory agencies have known for years the dangers that diacetyl exposure creates among workers in factories where bags of microwave popcorn are tested. The only agency to have taken any action, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), has kept its study of the chemical's impact on consumers secret except for sharing it with the popcorn industry. Now the first case of potential consumer illness from exposure to diacetyl has been documented.

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Is Barbie above the Law?

Sep 5, 2007 by Matthew Madia

Mattel is recalling another batch of toys because of lead paint contamination. This time, it's 675,000 Barbie toys. As it has with past recalls, Mattel is working in cooperation with the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the federal agency responsible for regulating toys and other products. Reg•Watch has blogged about the problems with this industry-lead voluntary recall system and the ineffectiveness of CPSC.

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EPA to Write Lead Paint Regulation in Just under 16 Years

Aug 30, 2007 by Matthew Madia

Recently, the media has paid a lot of attention to the risk of lead in children's toys and jewelry. Yesterday, USA Today ran a story on another source of potential lead exposure: house paint. The dangers of lead paint have been recognized for years, but the threat is still real. As the article points out, major problems can occur during the renovation of old houses.

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Progress on a Standard for Lead Exposure in Jewelry

Aug 23, 2007 by Matthew Madia

A recent spate of recalls involving toys and jewelry contaminated with alarmingly high levels of lead has revived the debate over whether the federal government should tighten standards on lead exposure. The Fashion Jewelry Trade Association is endorsing a tighter standard, according to BNA news service (subscription). Apparently, jewelry manufacturers are already complying with California regulations and would prefer a uniform national standard. Of course, this would have the added bonus of protecting all Americans from jewelry containing dangerous lead levels.

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In New York, Spitzer Picks up Bush's Slack

Aug 20, 2007 by Matthew Madia

New York Governor Elliot Spitzer is using state law to enforce a mandatory recall of children's toys contaminated by lead paint. Mattel has been forced to recall about 20 million toys this month. However, due to the nature of the federal regulatory system for product safety, those recalls are voluntary.

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NY Times Extols Value of "Effective and transparent regulatory system"

Aug 15, 2007 by Matthew Madia

Today's New York Times has an editorial on Chinese product safety that succinctly makes two great points: China needs a better regulatory system, and American needs to use its regulatory system to better monitor Chinese products.

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Mattel Recalls Another 9.5 Million Toys

Aug 14, 2007 by Rick Melberth*

Mattel, Inc. and the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) announced recalls of 9.5 million Chinese toys today due either to magnets coming loose from the toys or excessive levels of lead-based paint, according to The Washington Post. The magnets can come out the toys and be swallowed by children causing potentially fatal problems. Mattel discovered the problems while investigating all its factories in China after an earlier recall of 1.5 million toys due to lead paint coatings. According to the Post story, Mattel had never recalled products for lead paint problems prior to this month.

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