CPSEA – One Step Forward and Ten Steps Back
After over a year-and-a-half of our Congress being in denial about how bad the CPSIA really is (or “Lead Law” for those of us in powersports), a follow-up hearing finally took place last week in Washington D.C. with the introduction of the Consumer Protection Enhancement Act of 2010. The $64,000 question is: Does this additional law offer any relief to the powersports industry? If so, how much?
I’m afraid the answer is that right now it offers nothing…In fact, it may even take us backward.
The original statute, which was meant to keep kids from ingesting harmful amounts of Lead present on toys imported from China, essentially ran amok. Instead of targeting small toys, jewelry, and other trinkets that infants and toddlers often end up chewing on, the law cut a huge swath through every product made for children under 13 years-old. This obviously includes motorcycles and ATVs, but it also affected library books, brass musical instruments, medical devices for physically challenged or learning disabled kids, hand-knit clothing, and even learning tools like telescopes and chemistry sets. In a nutshell, the law has been a disaster for big and small companies and their customers. Even Mattel’s chairman was quoted as saying, “This law is nearly impossible for us to comply with. I honestly don’t see any smaller companies being able to.”
So what does this proposed amendment, the CPSEA, do to keep products that should never be banned still on the market? In theory, it offers an avenue for the Consumer Products Safety Commission to grant exceptions for products that can be proven not to pose any Lead poisoning risk to kids. The problem is that the three part ‘test’ that products are forced to go through is difficult if not impossible to pass, and furthermore, the third and final test opens up the floodgates for any over zealous regulator to permanently ban a product for ANY reason.
Let me explain: The third test states that in order to grant an exception, the product, component part, or material will have no measurable adverse effect on public health or safety. What does that mean? The way I read it, if a company was applying for an exception for their line of roller skates, and that company somehow scientifically proved that the roller skates posed absolutely no threat of Lead ingestion, then the CPSC could still deny the exception because there is certainly information in the public record that kids who own roller skates sometime fall and hurt themselves. In other words, regardless of the risk of Lead poisoning, the roller skates still can be shown to have a measurable adverse effect on public health, therefore they are illegal to sell!
Somehow, the Energy and Commerce Committee managed to make the fix for the law even worse than the original law itself…Go figure.
Stay vigilant…Stay active…and Stay Vocal on this issue. Otherwise, you and your family will be finding another activity to do next year – maybe like Tiddlywinks (wait a minute…they will probably be banned as well!).
Sean @ Cobra
Well how i see it is we better not let our kids go to school, hospitals, stores, Disneyland or ride in automobiles cause those things all have tons of lead everywhere. Thank our wonderful government for turning America into a hellhole. I think the real issue is 75% of government jobs should be eliminated now, America would be such a better place without worthless panels such as cpcea and all the other worthless government entities across this nation that dont do anything constructive and everything destructive.
Absolutely…Kids will have more lead exposure drinking a glass of tap water or turning on the bathroom faucet than they will by being exposed to their motorcycle. This IS getting ridiculous.
Well here’s some more “great news” I’m bringing to the table. Alaska senator Lisa Murkowski brought a bill to congress to vote on to dissaprove the EPA’s overreach to continue to regulate carbon emissions. Just the other day the senate voted against the resolution of their overreach by a vote of 47-53. This means that unelected bureaucrats will continue to control our lives. The EPA does not have this kind of authority, and is furthermore blantantly unconsitutional. This is more dangerous to our future than what people realize. The very idea that carbon-dioxcide which we exhale is dangerous to our health & environment is so far over the top that I’m having trouble staying sane. President Nixon created this uncontrolable monster(EPA). He also took the United States off the gold standard as well, which is another reason we find ourselves in serious trouble with the falling value of the dollar. It is now a fiat currency(backed by nothing) thanks to him. This dictator administration we have now is just as dangerous if not more so.
Toby,
I agree…Dangerous precedent…Especially with Lisa Jackson at the helm. Hopefully, this expansion of power will only be temporary. This bill WILL come up again.
If there is any silver lining here, it’s that we have found that at the working level, the EPA is willing to listen. Their main office is only an hour away from Cobra’s headquarters, and during the last round of rule making, we sat down with them and shared technical data. We also helped to form the ‘competition use only exemption’, which opened the way for the sport of MX to stay alive as we know it.
You can rest assured that when the next round of rule making happens (and it will), that Cobra will be there to fight for our sport.
Sean @ Cobra