February 18, 2010

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CPSC Chairman Inez Tenenbaum twice this week updated audiences of agency stakeholders on the CPSIA and other product safety matters. The first was February 15 at the Toy Fair in New York. In that speech she touched on matters like the testing and certification stay, the phthalates CHAP, and cadmium in children's jewelry. In that speech she was complementary of the efforts of the toy industry to improve safety. The second speech was February 17 at the ICPHSO conference in Washington. It covered similar issues as well as a broad update on the agency's progress and expectations in CPSIA implementation. However, while she singled out individual industry groups and companies for praise, her tone was surprisingly stern, especially related to the safety of children's products and to recalls in general. Below are the texts of both speeches (also found on CPSC's website here and here):

CPSC Chairman Inez M. Tenenbaum
TIA International Toy Fair
February 15, 2010 -- New York

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Good Morning Ladies and Gentlemen.

It is an honor for me to address TIA's American International Toy Fair this morning.

Thank you, Carter Keithley and all of those who worked so hard to make this event possible. I would also like to thank Carter and TIA for its support of the APEC Toy Safety Dialogue held in Hong Kong this January. That was a very important event because our engagement with APEC economies, particularly China, will have a direct effect on the quality and safety of children's toys here in the United States.

We know that engagement works with good business people because, right here in the United States, the cooperation that CPSC has seen from manufacturers, importers and retailers has had a dramatic effect on toy safety.

Over the last two years, the toy industry's record on safety has improved dramatically. In 2008, there were 162 toy recalls; in 2009, toy recalls dropped to just 41. Recalls involving lead in toys dropped from 85 in 2008 to just 14 last year. I expect all of you in this room to dedicate yourselves to helping continue the trend this year.

You may recall that this past holiday season, I came to Times Square here in New York City where I delivered this message: "Toys sold in America today are safer for our children than ever before." And I am here again today to recognize the hard work by members of your industry to make toys safer.

Give yourselves a round of applause. You deserve it.

The recalls of 2007 and 2008 resulted in Congress establishing the lowest lead limits in the world and ASTM 963 being turned into mandatory standards in 2009. "Many" manufacturers have improved designs and testing, "many" importers are dictating higher standards, and "many" retailers have begun their own testing. This is being done both to improve the safety of their products and to avoid the devastating income and reputation losses generated by having poor quality products recalled from store shelves.

I say "many" manufacturers, "many" importers and "many" retailers, because "some" in the toy industry still take risks for financial gain. About a week ago, our U.S. Customs and Border Protections investigators discovered nearly $100,000 in toys at the port of Seattle that had six times the allowable amount of lead. Shipments of lead-contaminated toys with an estimated domestic value of more than one million dollars have been seized at U.S. ports in 2009.

Obviously, "some" in the toy industry are not getting the word. Their behavior is putting America's children at risk and their irresponsible actions are harming your reputation. So I call upon all of you to help make sure your entire industry heeds the call to "get the lead out" of children's toys.

Working together, we have accomplished a lot. But much needs to be done. Consuming and producing economies have an inherent partnership and a mutual interest in strong safety standards to save lives, especially the lives of children.

As Chairman of CPSC, of course I am very interested in the Toy Safety Initiative. When industry works to improve the safety of its products, everyone benefits. Additional benefits can come when regulators do their jobs. That is why I believe U.S. and international regulators must build on our successes, encourage the improvement of existing toy standards, and create new standards to address emerging toy hazards.

Our experience suggests that the most pressing emerging hazards include:

• choking hazards;
• powerful magnets that can be swallowed and create a deadly blockage in the small intestines;
• lead and other dangerous metals;
• strangulation hazards;
• sharp points and projectiles; and
• dangerous chemicals.

It is the role of product safety regulators to ensure that all of these hazards are addressed by manufacturers and that they are not allowed to harm our children.

The U.S. experience with safety standards has been that you get a great deal of product safety by relying on robust voluntary consensus standards coupled with regulatory authority to intervene quickly in specific cases.

The Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 recognized this principle when it made the ASTM F-963 toy standard mandatory. Yes, the law resulted in new federal toy regulations to address the market's failure to meet the public's concerns about safety, and CPSC will review the standard periodically to ensure that it protects the health of children.

The CPSIA was the response by the United States Congress to deficiencies in production and supply chain practices and an inadequate level of conformity assurance for children's products.

In some cases, such as lead and phthalate levels, the law is very specific. But in general, it creates a new paradigm for standards, regulations, and conformance assurances when it comes to toys and other children's products.

It creates a system that fosters constructive change -- change by all parties in the supply chain: U.S. toy designers, importers, foreign supply chain managers and testing laboratory operators.

Under the CPSIA, the Commission has implemented the law's mandatory third-party testing program for children's products. The program is transparent and based on existing global laboratory accreditation standards. More than 230 labs from around the world are recognized on CPSC's Web site, and more labs are added each week.

Congress put in place additional safeguards for manufacturer-owned labs and labs owned or controlled in whole or in part by a government -- they too must pass a rigorous review process by CPSC staff.

As all of you know, the CPSIA is also decisive in its ban on phthalates. The U.S. Congress permanently banned three types of phthalates, and temporarily banned three other phthalates until additional research can be conducted.

For the three phthalates that were banned permanently, toys for children 12 and under are prohibited from having more than one tenth of one percent of phthalates. This rule went into effect on February 10, 2009, and manufacturers, importers and retailers in the United States must comply with it.

The CPSIA requires the appointment of a Chronic Hazard Advisory Panel (CHAP) to conduct research on phthalates. In December 2009, CPSC selected seven independent and respected scientists to serve on this Panel to assess the health risks from exposure to phthalates and if there are any negative effects from phthalate substitutes.

These scientists were nominated by the President of the National Academy of Sciences and included three American scientists and three others from Germany, the United Kingdom, and Canada.

Now, let me talk about our progress in the removal of lead in children's products. Almost one year ago, the CPSIA instituted the first mandatory limit for lead content in children's toys and products in the U.S. at 600 parts per million. In August of 2009, the total lead limit in substrates dropped to 300 parts per million and the limit for lead paint on toys dropped to 90 parts per million. These are now the most stringent lead limits in the world.

CPSC is aware that changes such as this need to be communicated quickly and clearly to suppliers. My colleagues and I at CPSC are doing all in our power to bring clarity to which products are impacted by the law, to establish testing protocols, and to accredit a significant number of testing labs around the world.

Just a few weeks ago, my fellow commissioners and I voted to extend a stay of enforcement on testing and certification of many regulated children's products. Please note, however, that all products must continue to meet the lead and phthalate limits set forth in the CPSIA, even though some testing and certification requirements have been stayed.

Some of the categories of children's products covered by the extended stay of enforcement for certification include: children's toys and child care articles with banned phthalates, children's toys subject to ASTM's F-963 toy safety standard, and electrically-operated toys.

In addition, the Commission has decided not to require a general certificate of conformity for these categories of children's products in the period before third party testing is required. A full list of required certifications and effective dates can be found on our Web site at www.cpsc.gov. Most of the information on the Web site has also been translated into Chinese.

The stay of enforcement will remain in effect for the children's products I just listed while CPSC continues to work toward recognizing more labs here and around the world. To increase successful transition to these requirements, independent third party testing and certification will only be required for categories of children's products that are manufactured more than 90 days after CPSC publishes in the Federal Register the laboratory accreditation requirements for any individual category of children's products.

The Commission also voted to extend the stay on certification and third-party testing for children's products subject to U.S. lead content limits. That stay is extended for one year and will come to an end on a date certain, February 10, 2011. Under this decision, products must still meet the current 300 ppm lead limit. Certification and third party testing to show compliance with the lead limits will be required for all children's products manufactured after February 10, 2011.

It is important to note that many major retailers in the United States have demanded, and most likely will continue to demand, independent testing and certification from their suppliers in order to have their products placed on their store shelves.

Unchanged is the ongoing requirement for independent third party testing and certification for all children's products subject to the following consumer product safety rules:

• the ban on lead in paint and other surface coatings,
• the ban on small parts, and
• the limits on lead content of metal components of children's jewelry.

Let me emphasize, the Commission has decided not to require a General Certificate of Conformity for children's products. Certifications for children's products will be specific to regulated requirements once the stay of enforcement is lifted and third party testing is mandatory for products subject to those regulations.

A full list of required certifications and effective dates can be found on our Web site. Under the CPSIA, different rules apply to nonchildren's products and I urge you to visit our Web site for more information on those items.

My agency has spent the last year-and-a-half meeting with and listening to you on CPSIA implementation in an effort to increase safety and reduce the financial impact on industry.

I am pleased that the Commission voted unanimously to adopt an interim enforcement policy allowing component part testing. Under this policy, domestic manufacturers and importers now have a choice in certifying their products. As before, they can send samples of the entire children's product out for independent third party testing.

Now they also can certify their products as meeting lead paint and lead content limits in the following ways:

• For lead in paint, they may obtain test reports from CPSC-recognized independent third party testing labs showing that each paint on the product complies with the 90 ppm lead paint limit. Alternately, they may have certificates from paint suppliers declaring that all their paint on the product complies with the 90 ppm lead limit, based on testing by CPSC-recognized independent third party testing laboratories.
• For lead content, they may obtain test reports from CPSC-recognized independent third-party testing labs showing that each of the accessible component parts on the product complies with the 300 ppm lead limit. Alternatively, they may have certificates from part suppliers declaring that all accessible component parts on the product comply with the 300 ppm lead limit based on testing by recognized independent third party testing laboratories.

It is my hope that those of you in the audience who are small business owners or crafters of toys will benefit in time from component part testing. I care deeply about how the law is impacting you -- please know that I and the CPSC want to help you stay in business, while meeting the requirements of the law. The CPSC will continue to put timely information on our Web site -- in English and in other languages -- for reference by stakeholders. And we will continue web-based interactive training seminars that will provide practical information for industry as it seeks to comply with U.S. requirements. A very successful interactive webinar with a live audience of more than 150 for Chinese toy suppliers took place just this past December. We will continue to do these webinars.

While the stay of enforcement from testing and certification to F-963 compliance is in place, CPSC staff is working hard to develop testing protocols and accreditation rules for the regulatory implementation of each part of F-963. When the stay of enforcement is lifted, domestic manufacturers, importers, and their suppliers will be expected to comply.

Let me take a moment to restate a prediction I made last month related to F-963. In January, I stated that "the heavy metals cited in F-963, especially cadmium, are going to attract attention in the United States from consumer advocates, the media, and parents." Three days after those words were recorded and sent to the APEC Toy Safety Dialogue in Hong Kong, the Associated Press broke a huge story about finding high levels of cadmium in imported children's jewelry.

Even though metal jewelry is not a toy, I still urge all of you to ensure that those whom you do business with are not substituting cadmium, or other toxic heavy metals such as antimony or barium, in place of lead. All of us should be committed to keeping hazardous or toxic levels of heavy metals out of surface coatings and substrates of toys and children's products.

With the vast majority of toys consumed in the United States being imported, my agency fully recognizes that we live in a global marketplace. I am increasingly convinced that we regulators must increase our cooperation to best serve our customers and consumers. As CPSC continues to implement the CPSIA and review F-963, I assure you that we will be looking outward to find ways to harmonize our approach with our global partners.

One area where we have seen an increasing convergence of views on the right approach to increasing the safety of toys and other products is in the need for a systematic improvement of practices in the supply and distribution chain.

In October of last year, CPSC and AQSIQ met for our third Biennial Consumer Product Safety Summit in China. AQSIQ agreed that consumer product manufacturers should work hard to guarantee quality and improve safety.

AQSIQ affirmed the importance of product safety and quality best practices through its supervision over consumer product manufacturers, which incorporates a risk rating system for products. And our Chinese counterparts announced the implementation of a New Regulation of Inspection and Supervision on the Import and Export of Toys. This regulation emphasizes product design, control of raw material, and product quality control to ensure that toys conform to relevant product safety requirements.

We at the CPSC made clear our intentions to emphasize the need for U.S. importers to be more accountable as members of the supply and distribution chain. To help importers, CPSC is creating and promoting a new Handbook for Importing Safer Consumer Products.

Additionally, we are planning to produce a series of webinars for U.S. importers of consumer products, focusing on the steps necessary to ensure adequate and relevant premarket and production testing. This includes the need to ensure that foreign production facilities are knowledgeable about the federal safety requirements that apply to the product being made.

Although we may be on our way out of the global recession, many in the toy supply chain have a long way to go before the red ink is behind them. I recognize that as my agency implements the CPSIA, international coordination in establishing and communicating new requirements can help the toy industry stay competitive in a world of international trade.

I am as committed to transparency as I am to enforcement and as we go forward, I hope all of you will work closely with us through our comments process and open proceedings.

It is essential that we find common ground through dialogue on "building safety into toys and children's products."

The consequences of not building safety into a product, especially in a dynamic environment where there are not yet performance standards, can be grave -- a lesson we have learned from magnets and which we cannot afford to ignore.

Voluntary efforts will only take us so far. In the U.S. market, the CPSIA has moved the emphasis on safety and conformance with standards as far up the supply chain as possible and performance by the various actors in the supply chain will be regulated.

Over the next few weeks and months, CPSC will have to make tough decisions about whether manufacturing supply chains really are meeting new accountability requirements.

Let me close my remarks, by assuring you of my intention to focus on international cooperation -- with China, with Europe, and with other key economies as our agency goes forward with its implementation of the CPSIA. These efforts have the potential to benefit the toy industry by streamlining the number of standards and codes that need to be considered in global production and distribution.

I appreciate very much TIA providing an opportunity for me to once again share my thoughts on the challenges we face and opportunities before us as stakeholders committed to the safety of our children's toys.

Chairman Tenenbaum
ICPHSO Keynote Address
February 17, 2010 -- Washington, DC

Thank you so much Michelle [Reinen] for your gracious introduction. You truly represent the best of CPSC's state designee program. Your tireless efforts on enforcement and education have saved lives and prevented injuries in Wisconsin - and now the ICPHSO community is benefiting from your experience.

To the ICPHSO Board, members, and special guests, thank you for the invitation to attend my second ICPHSO conference and to discuss the state of product safety.

A tradition has developed in recent years for CPSC to have its own day to update the ICPHSO community. I am so pleased to be part of this tradition and to come before all of you today to report that the state of product safety is strong.

I firmly believe that we are headed in the right direction in building a safer marketplace and a safer community. For we are a nation swiftly moving away from harmful chemicals and heavy metals in our children's products. We are a nation that has sent a strong message to our global partners about their responsibilities, to do what is just and fair in manufacturing products intended for our stores. And, we are a nation that has reaffirmed its commitment to ensuring that CPSC will be a leading regulator of the marketplace.

For these reasons, I say that product safety in the United States in strong and getting stronger.

After a tumultuous 2007 and 2008, we made 2009 a year of change at CPSC:

• change that brought new staff and new thinking
• change that brought new powers and a return to openness, and
• change that brought renewed confidence to parents when they reached for that toy on the toy store shelf.

And I'm pleased to report that we ended 2009 on a high note,

• with a 75 percent decline in toy recalls versus 2008,
• an 80 percent decline in toy recalls due to lead violations,
• the opening of our first foreign office in Beijing, and
• a 2010 budget that is double what it was 4 years ago.

When you look at where we have been and where we are headed, you can see why we are agency on the rise. You can see it in the determination of CPSC staff

• working in the marketplace to catch unscrupulous makers and sellers of children's clothing with drawstrings,
• working late into the night to complete new rules on tracking labels and product registration cards, and
• working on weekends to stop online auctions of recalled products.

When you look at the revitalization that has gone on at the CPSC, state regulators, and advocacy groups, 2010 is shaping up, in my opinion, to be the Year of the Consumer.

So that we never again have the year of the recall, let's continue to work together to put the interests of consumers above all else.

Now, some folks say that all of this talk of change at CPSC and better days for product safety is just rhetoric.

Well, that's not true.

I have seen it.

I have seen CPSC's crib safety experts step up and say now is our time. Now is the time to create a state-of-the-art crib standard and not let special interests hijack the process. And thanks to the work of CPSC staff - with a little encouragement from me to ASTM - we are now on the right path to creating a safer sleeping environment for our most vulnerable consumers.

I have seen it in the drive that CPSC's Compliance and Field Operations team has in attacking problems. From toys to Chinese drywall to swimming pools, they have conducted thousands of investigations, homeowner interviews, and site inspections in recent months. I believe in this team, and I know they are working not just for CPSC, but for the safety of the communities in which they live.

I have seen it during a visit to Yonkers, New York, where Jim Guest and Don Mays are modernizing a 75-year-old organization. Through advocacy, testing and a new partnership with schools, Consumers Union is empowering a new generation of parents with information to keep families safe.

And I have seen it in Jim Neil from RILA who took great pride in bringing representatives from 70 percent of US retailers to meet with Commissioner Bob Adler and me to announce a plan to create a uniform testing and certification program.

Competitors becoming partners in the pursuit of product safety, especially the safety of children's products, is what this new direction is all about.

It is what we all need to be about at this time.

Although I have been unable to endorse RILA's or TIA's testing programs, this is the kind of thinking, outside the box thinking, that I'm looking for from stakeholders.

As many of you have heard me say before, I am a believer in open government. It is integral to the Administration's efforts to change the culture in Washington, and I believe it is integral to changing perceptions of the CPSC.

Over these past months, I have made the Commission as accessible to the public as any time in its history. At the same time, I have made myself accessible to both industry and consumer groups.

I will continue to have an open door in the years ahead. But I am looking to work with people who come to the table with solutions and creative approaches to safety, not those who want to delay progress or fail to respond quickly to problems.

I'm looking to work with those on the cutting edge of safety.

People like Steve Gass in Oregon, who continues to push for table saws to have a sensing device that stops the blade within milliseconds of coming in contact with the skin. Affordable technology that prevents amputations, now that's good for consumers. Steve was recognized by CPSC in 2001, and he has not given up.

Organizations like the Public Interest Research Group, which is sending text messages to cell phones with toy safety information and the Center for Environmental Health, which is using XRF guns and the law to keep children safe from toxins.

And numerous companies that have worked closely with our agency to develop systematic, technological approaches to timely reporting. Now let me step back for a moment to say that I am fully aware of the chatter in certain circles that CPSC is an agency that is overwhelmed by mandates and distracted from its mission.

Well, to all of you here today, I say don't believe everything you read on the Internet, except what you read on Web sites that end in dot gov.

We at CPSC are not a tired agency, but tireless in our pursuit of safety.

We at CPSC are not subsumed by unintended consequences, but consumed with matters of consequence. During the past eight months we have:

• begun federal rulemaking on recreational off-highway vehicles, after it was brought to my attention there were no standards and a dramatic rate of rollovers resulting in deaths and injuries;
• jump-started the agency's dormant rulemaking on all-terrain vehicles, on which staff made great progress on before the passage of the CPSIA and was supported by Congress in their call to complete our work;
• visited China multiple times to push for best practices in manufacturing, building safety into the products they export, and complying with CPSIA requirements;
• We've conducted an industry wide recall of 50 million Roman shades and roll-up blinds with a free repair for everyone;
• worked hard to recall the remaining drop side cribs that pose a deadly entrapment and suffocation risk to babies;
• We've moved swiftly to get ahead of the emerging issue of cadmium in children's jewelry;
• We've created CPSC 2.0, our social media initiative, which is reaching out to tens of thousands of consumers and has the potential to put lifesaving information before millions of online users;
• We've joined forces with other federal partners to address health and safety concerns associated with Chinese drywall in thousands of homes in the south -- this has been the most expensive and expansive investigation in CPSC history;
• We've joined forces with state Attorneys General from across the country to coordinate on major recall announcements and protect children from hazardous products;
• We've carried out my principle of firm but fair enforcement of product safety laws by inspecting 1200 public pools and spas for compliance with the Virginia Graeme Baker Pool and Spa Safety Act -- the results gave us good reason to believe that the law is working; and
• We've held companies such as RC2, Fisher-Price, Mattel, and Target accountable for lead in paint violations tied to the major recalls of 2007 and 2008.

Our achievements in recent months represent a turning of the page on the past. We are now turning to a fresh page and scripting our own future. I believe this is rich with opportunities to retain the public's trust in CPSC.

To keep our focus on what consumers expect of CPSC and what is in their best interest, I have established an ambitious agenda for this new year.

The top priorities for CPSC in 2010 are:

• carrying out a SAFE SLEEP initiative for babies and toddlers;
• modernizing the agency, including our work on the product incident database and open a new testing facility;
• continuing our work to finish the pending CPSIA rulemakings;
• implementing an expansive information and education campaign tied to the Pool and Spa Safety Act;
• carrying out a minority outreach campaign; and
• conducting an operational review and a new five-year strategic plan.

As I stated in recent testimony before Congress, I believe that the safest product in a home with a baby must be the crib. In response to the completely unacceptable number of recalls, deaths and near-deaths in recent years, we are taking action.

Our Safe Sleep initiative is a holistic, multipronged approach. In 2010, CPSC staff will propose a final rule mandating new performance standards for cribs. CPSC staff is working closely with ASTM on this standard; but, let me be perfectly clear, if ASTM stalls or fails to approve key elements of our multi step performance plan, then we will act independently.

CPSC is trying to be a good partner with the crib industry, but the JPMA and ASTM need to act responsibly, in an expedited manner to regain their standing with parents and the public.

Let me repeat again, to be clear, there will be a new federal safety standard for cribs this year -- that's a promise I've made to parents all over this country.

Internal to CPSC, we have created a new safe sleep environment team that will coordinate all crib recalls and expand our use of the Early Warning System.

Finally, we will use product registration cards, a national safe sleep campaign and an analysis of recall repair kits to make recalls more effective and to prevent child deaths from soft bedding or defects.

To honor the families who have lost their children like the Lineweavers, Davises, Keysars, and hundreds of other families, we must make every child's sleep environment a fortress of safety.

While we are on the subject of cribs, I have a message for manufacturers, a message that actually applies to makers of all consumer products. I say no more to the tired tactic of blaming parents in the press when CPSC announces a recall that involves a death.

Take responsibility and show respect to the grieving family, yes, even if they are pursuing litigation. Those who tread into this arena when CPSC has found your product to be defective will be called out. Make no mistake about it.

Next on our priorities is modernizing the agency. With nearly $20 million allocated by Congress, CPSC is overhauling its IT system, tearing down our information silos and building up a highly integrated system. The new Consumer Product Safety Risk Management System will improve agency efficiencies, allow us to connect the dots quicker, and take in ever more data.

Let's talk for a moment about the public database. From day one, I have been a supporter of the database. I believe it has the potential to usher in a new generation of educated consumers. Consumers who know how to report product incidents, how to search for incident reports on products they own, and how to stay apprised of safety warnings from CPSC.

To give industry a chance to voice their concerns and give advocates a chance to share their vision, we held a highly successful workshop last month and a great public hearing in November. The feedback received from both sides of the isle will be integrated into a final product.

But now that our team of experts has gone back to the process of building the database, I want those in industry to stop fighting old battles and get prepared.

Come this time next year when the database is activated, it is going to be tough for you, I realize that. It's also going to be a challenge for CPSC.

Let's continue to work together to be sure the processes are in place within every company, so that SaferProducts.gov -- the domain where the database will be located - works as Congress intended it to.

I am very pleased to announce to all of you that as of today SaferProducts.gov has been turned on. Now the database is not yet on the site, but you can use the site to track its development and preview some of the pages and functions in advance of March 2011.

I encourage all of you to attend the plenary session this afternoon with two of our IT experts and learn more about the approach we are taking to build the database and modernize our IT systems.

As I stated to you earlier, we are also modernizing CPSC through the use of social media. This year, we plan to expand the platforms we are using to include Facebook and cell phone text messages.

And our new laboratory -- or what the staff calls our product testing facility -- is slated to open in Rockville later this year with new, modern equipment. The staff and I are very excited that we will finally be able to do our own fire testing.

Regarding the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act, I continue to believe that the Act was the most substantial and positive change for the Commission since it was created. There has been a paradigm change in the marketplace that cannot be reversed. Companies that make zippers and buttons for children's and adult products are eliminating lead from manufacturing. Tracking labels will soon be on children's products, as will product registration cards.

Testing and certification to the small parts, pacifiers, lead paint, ATVs, metal jewelry and cribs have been in place, which is good for consumers. For other products, the Commission has stayed implementation to allow the agency time to establish a global infrastructure for testing and certification so that industry is not set up to fail. We want the Act's requirements to succeed for affected industries and for consumers.

There are some very important rules that I am encouraging our hard-working staff to complete this year, including

• defining what is a "children's product," under CPSIA
• establishing the long-awaited rules for what is reasonable testing, and
• promulgating more of the juvenile product rules.

Regarding the CPSIA section 104 requirements, I would like everyone to know that there is synergy between my philosophy on voluntary standards and the Act's mandate to create mandatory rules.

The implementation of the CPSA in the 1980s may have lead an eight to one ratio in voluntary to mandatory standards, but the CPSIA has changed that ratio dramatically.

To those who sit on voluntary standards committees, I say your work has never been more important. Stay relevant by stepping up to enhance your standards now.

For example, if you revamp the standards to make strollers less prone to finger entrapments or bassinets less prone to entrapment, then we can recognize your standard in a mandated rule at the federal level as it is.

Even beyond the CPSIA, where a voluntary standard is not being complied with or is not working to protect consumers, I have directed staff to explore federal rulemaking.

I have also directed the staff to do more outreach with the small business and crafter communities. These businesses are filled with good, hard working people. I don't want their businesses to fail, and I don't want anyone to not be able to care for their families. But, the law covers all companies big and small for good reason.

We are going to keep pursuing component testing and exploring other cost savings options for small businesses. All the while, we will be stepping up our communication with these businesses to help them stay in compliance with the law.

While we do our part at CPSC to effectively and reasonably implement this child safety law, the Commission will continue to be responsive to the Congress as they consider options and possible amendments.

I hope you were able to attend the various plenary sessions that my senior staff held this morning for a more detailed discussion on the CPSIA.

Another key priority to me is reaching out to minority communities. I believe that every consumer, no matter where they live or who they are, deserves access to lifesaving information about household dangers and product hazards.

The GAO pointed out ways that we can improve in this area, so we are now working hard to collect injury data by ethnicity and are formulating a grassroots minority outreach campaign. This campaign will combine the power of the Neighborhood Safety Network with on-the-ground outreach to African Americans, Hispanics and other minority communities.

Through a new contract with Widmeyer Communications and additional contracting to come, CPSC is poised to roll out a multi-million dollar information and education campaign on drowning and drain entrapment prevention in pools and spas.

I would like to thank Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz and the Baker family for their efforts to secure funding for CPSC to carry out this initiative.

We will honor Graeme Baker, Abigail Taylor, Zachery Cohn and the 300 children who tragically drown each year in pools, by putting the best and creative minds together on this campaign. Through education, layers of protection, and safer drain covers, I believe we can make pools fun for children and not a source of tragedy.

Look for more details about these two campaigns in the weeks to come.

Finally, I am pleased to announce that Booz Allen Hamilton has been selected to help CPSC meet our vital mission and modernize our organization.

Over the next few months, CPSC and Booz Allen will be teaming up to develop a five-year strategic plan and conduct an operational/managerial analysis. We must take the time to reflect and think about where we want to be in the next five years and the best way to position ourselves for success.

The first step in creating a dynamic strategic plan will be to bring CPSC's new vision and major goals into focus. We want this process to be inclusive of all our stakeholders. That's includes all of you. You will hear more in a plenary session later this afternoon about how we plan to include you in the strategic planning process to help us set our goals.

The second step will be building an operational plan that will enable us to review the way we do our business and assure that our organization is aligned to execute our vision.

I'm pleased to be able to launch this initiative here today, and I encourage all of you to participate in this great opportunity to help shape the future of our agency and what we do every day.

I would like to close my remarks today by giving you a better sense of who we are at CPSC. CPSC stands for safety and that is best represented in our staff.

We are parents and grandparents, survivors and fighters.

We are an agency represented by people working in honor of children taken too soon and people whose own lives were almost taken too soon.

We have heart and we have talent at CPSC. We have staffs who are experts in their field -- whether it be child behavior, engineering, toxicology, chemistry, or administrative law.

• We have field staff who drive hundreds of miles to interview a family who has lost their home to a fire or worse yet, lost their child.
• We have port inspectors looking for that needle in the haystack as millions of products flood into ports of call each day, using new technologies to hone in on violative fireworks, toys, and cigarette lighters.
• We have scientists strapped for dollars, yet as dogged in their pursuit in identifying the next chronic hazard as their colleagues at NIH or EPA.

And we have a new, expanded Commission. Not always unanimous in our votes, but all committed to keeping children safe. A new Commission that has new powers -- and we are not afraid to use them. If you resist our efforts to recall children's products, be forewarned, this Commission stands ready to be creative in the use of our enforcement authorities.

As the Toyota experience has shown in recent weeks, this government will not allow for delay in recalling dangerous products.

Consumers expect CPSC to be proactive, put their interests first, use their tax dollars wisely, and be nonpartisan in our pursuit of protecting children.

Under my leadership this is what we will strive to do at the CPSC, as we are committed to making this the Year of the Consumer.

And with your support, I will continue the transformation of CPSC from what some have described as a "teething tiger" into the world's leading lion of consumer protection.

Once again, thank you to ICPHSO for inviting me to be here today. Special thanks to ICPHSO President Rachel Weintraub for your steadfast commitment to children and to the CPSC. We thank you so much Rachel.

I wish you all an enjoyable remainder to your afternoon and hope to see you again soon.