Security issues critical Chiefs priorities
Hal Stratton, chairman of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, traveled to WV in the State of New Mexico and Alaska during the last year of implementation hearings on the dangers of All-Terrain Vehicles, which in the context of nearly 1000 deaths and 316000 are injured between 2000 and 2002.He came to us, we do not see many ATVs turn around Washington, Stratton was cited in these terms in Albuquerque, his hometown. That is why we decided to go to places where man is with them. ”
During the years since the last hearing, the Commission is composed of three members did not respond to a petition of 2002, a coalition of consumer, safety and environmental groups, aims to ban l ‘use of ATVs by children under 16 years.
To ensure consumer safety and lawyers, the ATV hearings are a good example, Stratton’s term of two years in the CPSC: a lot of movement, but too little for it.
They note that Stratton has dozens of other Tours, paid a lot of industry groups. His travels included visits in China, Costa Rica, Belgium, Spain and Mexico. At the same time, add critics, the Commission has little public meetings - three so far this year - and there was only one new safety rule.
It was a lack of regulatory activities, including meetings on the legal activity, “said Sally Greenberg, Senior Counsel product safety for consumers of the Union.
Instead of a culture of consumer protection, it seems a culture of moderation and delay, “Rep. Janice D. Schakowsky (D-Ill.) said recently at a conference of consultation on the Agency safety standards. At the hearing, five and consumer safety activists expressed concern that the Agency, which has 471 employees and an annual budget of approximately $ 60 million, has been hampered by both laws and a little hesitant leader. The result, she says, that the Commission did not sufficiently quickly to remove dangerous products the public market is not sufficiently reminded that if the act.