CONSUMER REPORTS FINDS RECALLED PRODUCTS CONTINUE TO BE SOLD TO CONSUMERS
CPSC approves exports of recalled goods
(Editor's Note: This is an investigative report by Consumer Reports. October, 2004.)

YONKERS, NY - An investigation in the November issue of Consumer Reports has found that safety standards developed by industry, the federal Consumer Product Safety Commission, and consumer groups are being ignored by some manufacturers and importers, leaving many hazardous products in the marketplace. The report shows the problem stems from a loss of funding and staff at the CPSC, inadequate enforcement by its regulators, and crippling federal policies that prevent the commission from adequately protecting consumers.

In addition, Consumer Reports discovered inadequate and sluggish response to some frequent violators by the CPSC. For example, the commission says that between 1994 and 2002, a toy importer violated safety standards and brought 111,000 unsafe toys into the country. The CPSC's response during eight years of violations was 16 "letters of advice" requesting corrective action and $0 in fines. In 2003, the agency and the company signed a settlement agreement.

The report shows that defective goods often find their way to dollar stores and other deep discounters, where more and more Americans are now shopping. Consumer Reports also found that as imports rise each year, the number of federal inspections for unsafe goods at stores, warehouses, and ports fell 35 percent from 2001 to 2003. The drop is caused by a reduced government effort to search for them, according to a CPSC report to Congress in February. Consumer Reports had no trouble buying dozens of products that violate U.S. safety standards at stores in California, Florida, Illinois, New York, and Texas; only one of the items has since been publicly recalled by the CPSC.

As part of the investigation, Consumer Reports dug through decades of CPSC records and databases, examined ship manifests, and interviewed regulators, inspectors, product-testing organizations, doctors, manufacturers, retailers, and safety researchers. The findings include a host of contradictory policies and practices that obstruct consumer protection:

� Federal action is inconsistent. In 2002 U.S. Customs in Newark, N.J., seized 10,000 illegal switchblade knives disguised as cigarette lighters, noting that a similar weapon was found in the wreckage of United Airlines flight 93. But in 2003, Customs and the CPSC allowed another shipment of knife lighters to be exported to the United Arab Emirates, CPSC records show. � Federal regulators often don't exercise the power they have. Private companies marshal all legal authority necessary to seize and destroy counterfeits. By contrast, the CPSC rarely destroys even dangerous products. In some cases, it can't legally; in others it can. � The CPSC lacks transparency. The agency often withholds for months or even years information about suspected unsafe products until it issues a public recall. It has never publicized the safety violations related to more than 11,000 "corrective actions" from 1990 to 2004, sometimes allowing violators to sell out substandard merchandise to unsuspecting consumers. � The U.S. government endangers foreign consumers. Congress and CPSC allow recalled products and other dangerous goods to be exported. Consumer Reports found the commission approving shipments of dangerous cribs, toys, electrical cords, Christmas lights, beds and clothing to countries such as the Dominican Republic, France, Israel, Japan, Mexico, and Trinidad.

The Need for Reform
Safety experts and consumer groups, including Consumers Union, say Congress should take the following steps to improve safety in the marketplace:
� Give the CPSC budget and staff increases to improve enforcement and data analysis. And send inspectors back into stores to check for dangerous products. � Ban the export of dangerous recalled products. � Let the sun shine on all critical CPSC activities. Taxpayers should have easy access to information about products and companies that violate safety standards. Now the CPSC is required to negotiate with manufacturers before releasing such information. Rejected by U.S. , Unsafe Goods Go Abroad
Consumers may think that dangerous household products that are stopped at U.S. ports or discovered on store shelves are either repaired or destroyed. But Consumer Reports found that millions of hazardous products, including toys, cribs, electrical goods, and flammable clothing have been gathered up and sent abroad for resale.
But where do they go? When a product intended for sale in the U.S. violates a mandatory safety standard and a manufacturer or exporter wants to ship it abroad, that party is required to notify the CPSC. The commission staff rarely objects. According to commission records, more than 900 times between 1994 and 2004 products that violated mandatory federal safety standards were exported. Among some of the recalled products sent abroad:
Balloon-tongue "Zapper" toys were exported to the Dominican Republic in 2001 after 835,000 were recalled in the U.S. because children could inhale the balloons or choke. In August 2004 they were still available in a party-goods store in Santiago, Dominican Republic.
More than 500 BCBG Max Azaria girls' and women's flammable chenille sweaters were shipped to Israel and Japan in 1999. They failed U.S. flammability standards and would burn faster than a newspaper if ignited. The company was also fined for trying to sell the sweater to employees at its company store in California.
In addition, Wellmax extension cords shipped to Panama in 2001 after a million of them were recalled in the U.S. because their undersized wires could overheat. In July of this year Consumer Reports found some of the defective cords for sale over the Internet, for "export only," by Wellmax, an importer in Santa Fe Springs, California.
Experts have said that allowing unsafe goods to be re-exported gives manufacturers less incentive to meet U.S. safety standards in the first place. Moreover, in a global economy, vigorous trade means that what goes around comes around. Commerce in dangerous products ultimately threatens all consumers.

Editor's Note: This excerpt is from Consumer Reports Magazine, October, 2004.It is under a copywrite to Consumer Reports Magazine.