When she learned the results of Consumer Reports’ product evaluation, Hamsmith said that it was “sickening” to hear how many dangerous items remain out there for sale today.
Part of the problem is that older products that aren’t compliant with the CPSC rule have been allowed to stay on the market. But Hamsmith says she is confident the marketplace will get safer over time as old products sell out or are taken off the shelves. As for companies that sell unsafe items in violation of Reese’s Law, she says, “My message is, you will get busted, you will get caught. Our children’s lives matter more than your bottom line.”
And while the CPSC’s current button-battery standard doesn’t apply to toys, a promising new rule has been proposed that would bring the existing toy requirements up to the same strong standard that applies to all other products. So, for instance, the safety of battery compartments in toys would have to be tested more rigorously to make sure they won’t break or pop open in real-world scenarios, such as when the product is dropped on the floor. Consumer Reports safety experts expressed their support for the proposed toy rule, together with the American Academy of Pediatrics, the advocacy group Kids in Danger, and several other advocacy groups.
The Toy Association has expressed the industry’s support for Reese’s Law but argues that a new rule specifically for toys is unnecessary because there is already an adequate standard in place and an established process for amending it. “CPSC’s proposed rulemaking would serve to unilaterally forgo the established and well-regarded consensus standards process, already underway,” Joan Lawrence, the Toy Association’s senior vice president of standards and regulatory affairs, wrote to CR in an emailed statement.
The CPSC says that the agency is in the process of reviewing comments to the proposed rule. CPSC staff declined to comment on the specific products CR evaluated for this article but said that “manufacturers and importers that fail to comply with all the requirements of Reese’s Law—including standards associated with battery compartments, warnings on the product, its packaging and in instructions and manuals—risk enforcement action including civil penalties up to $120K per knowing violation.”
