Q. Why would a Chinese toy manufacturer put toxic levels of lead into the toys that American children play with?
A. Because they can.
Current federal regulations allow lead paint to be used to coat children’s toys just as long as the lead content is six parts per million or less, which frankly, always seemed like a strange distinction to make— If there’s that little lead content allowed, why even use lead paint?
The problem is that not only is no one checking on that, but in recent years, the Bush Administration has undermined all efforts to put more stringent inspections in place.
From Carpetbagger:
Earlier this year, for example, the Bush administration decided to look the other way on lead in children’s lunchboxes. Here’s the deal: the CPSC had two ways of testing these vinyl lunchboxes used by children. One involves dissolving part of the vinyl to see how much lead is in the solution; the other involves swiping the surface of a bag and then determining how much lead has rubbed off.
Using the first method, the CPSC found that 20% of the lunchboxes exceeded safe levels of lead. In one instance, a lunchbox had 16 times the federal standard. Naturally, the CPSC ignored these test results, using the swipe/rub-off tests exclusively. What’s more, as the AP explained, researchers changed their testing protocol: “After a handful of tests, they increased the number of times they swiped each bag, again and again on the same spot, resulting in lower average results.” The test results also show that many lunchboxes were tested only on the outside, which isn’t where the food goes.
80% of the toys America’s children play with are made in China. Very few are inspected, and those that are get soft-pedaled through the inspection process.
And once again, when political ideology and public safety clash, the Bush White House offers their time-honored solution:
Translation: The horse is already out, so hurry up and shut the barn door.
Please allow me to send out a news flash to the president who seems to have eaten a few lead paint chips too many as a child. We already have a panel that is designed to create safeguards for food and other consumer products. They’re called the FDA and the lesser-known Consumer Product Safety Commission.
See, when Clinton was looking for a CPSC chairman, he actually looked for a consumer advocate and chose Ann Brown, a consumer watchdog with 20 years of experience.
When Brown stepped down in 2001, the Bush White House did its normal rigorous pre-screening process and looked through its donor lists for Hal Stratton, co-chair of “Lawyers For Bush 2000″. Not a single new regulation appeared under Stratton’s watch, and was perhaps best known for taking the position that while he would not allow his daughters to play with water yo-yos, a toy banned in several countries because of the strangling danger associated with them, that he would not seek to ban them in the United States.
When Stratton stepped down in 2006, the Bush Administration replaced him with Michael Baroody. Baroody had exactly the kind of background the Bush Administration loves— Not only was he the top lobbyist for the National Association of Manufacturers, working hard to not only roll back regulation but absolve manufacturers of all wrongdoing, but he’s also the son of American Enterprise Institute co-founder William Baroody.
