January 13, 2010

E-Mail This Article Printer-Friendly Version

By Sean Oberle

It's funny how events arise and get set to converge sometimes. Two prominent senators -- Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) -- are calling for action on cadmium in children's products at the same time that CPSC's January 15 deadline nears for getting its suggested improvements to the CPSIA to Congress.

Product Safety Forum is a free service of Product Safety Letter. Its mission is twofold: to promote frank and open airing of product safety issues and to provide advice and guidance from top experts in the field. Do you have an idea or article you think would make a great piece for Product Safety Forum, including commentary or reaction to this one? Then email Publisher Sean Oberle to discuss it. To read more stories, see the archives.

Schumer, according to the A.P., is calling for a ban of cadmium in children's products, while Klobuchar is calling for a hearing.

Klobuchar is especially interesting because although she was a vocal proponent of the CPSIA, she also has expressed concern about how the law is affecting mini-bikes, all terrain vehicles (ATVs) and similar off-road vehicles.

The question is whether events actually will converge. It's possible that Congress will decide that CPSC already has the power to deal with cadmium sufficiently and do nothing but urge action. It's possible that even if legislators think a new law is needed, they'll pass something narrow that avoids opening up the CPSIA.

Nonetheless, the desire to do something about cadmium raises the possibility that it could be the camel's nose under the CPSIA tent.

Concern about such a possibility is a primary reason for congressional resistance to making changes to the CPSIA. Indeed, this week, our premium sister service, Product Safety Letter, reported that former Congressman Tom Allen (D-Maine) told Commissioner Nancy Nord that fear of such a slippery slope -- with many affected industries seeking changes to what they dislike about the law -- is a strong disincentive. Allen now represents the publishing industry and has been active in explaining that industry's CPSIA concerns to CPSC.

If you recognize that the "camel's nose" and the "slippery slope" are variations of the same logical fallacy, it's also important to remember that recognizing a logical fallacy often isn't very helpful in predicting events in the congressional sausage factory. At least two CPSIA-affected industries have the sympathies of prominent Democrats: off-road vehicles with Klobuchar and the publishing industry with Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), whose recently aborted CPSIA amendment language contained an attempted fix -- a fix that the publishing industry didn't like, according to this week's Product Safety Letter, which might explain why Waxman pulled it before introducing it.

What other industries have such potential allies? It will be interesting to see how the cadmium scare plays out against legislators' desires to minimize changes to the CPSIA. I'm not making any predictions.

With apologies to Flannery O'Conner.


Sean Oberle is publisher of Product Safety Letter, Product Safety Forum, and Product Safety Daily. Reach him at (301) 229-1027, seanoberle@productsafetyletter.com