Personal Injury Law

The AP (2/5, Kerr) reports, "Strict new safety rules for toys and other children's products take effect next week, a move that has been applauded by parents and consumer advocates but jeered by industry groups as overly broad and a jobs-killer." Now, "Sen. Mark Pryor, D-Ark., blames Nancy Nord, head of the agency tasked with implementing the law, for creating confusion and panic about the real target of the law." He said, "They've had five to six months to get this together and give the industry some direction. I don't know what they've been doing." In reaction, "Nord, a Bush administration appointee, issued a statement Wednesday placing the blame on Congress for passing a sweeping law 'without the funding requested by the Commission and with little time to address the complex issues presented by the new law.'"



Lawmakers write to Obama, ask him to fire CPSC's acting chairman. In a blog on the Wall Street Journal website (2/4) Melanie Trottman wrote, "Simmering tensions between Congress and the Consumer Product Safety Commission over snags in implementing the sweeping product safety law reached a boiling point as several lawmakers called for the commission's acting chairman to resign" and "in a two-and-a-half page letter to President Barack Obama dated Tuesday, Sens. Mark Pryor and Jay Rockefeller and Reps. Bobby Rush and Henry Waxman said Nancy Nord has 'grossly mishandled' the implementation of the legislation, adopted last summer after a series of children's products were recalled for high lead levels and other hazards."

Manufacturers push to delay lead law. The Los Angeles Times (2/5, Semuels) reports, "The manufacturers want to delay for at least six months the effective date of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act." The CPSC "ruled Friday that manufacturers would not have to pay for third parties to test their products for lead content." However, "manufacturers and retailers say that because it is still illegal to sell products that contain more than 600 parts per million of lead, they still have to test their materials to ensure that they are compliant."

From the American Association for Justice news release.