Hazardous Waits: CPSC Lets Crucial Time Pass Before Warning Public About Dangerous Products

Contributing Organization(s): Public Citizen's Congress Watch

Author(s)/Creator(s): Taylor Lincoln

Publishing Date: 2008-01-30

Issue Areas: Consumer Protection; Government Reform

Ownership/Rights Info: Copyright 2008 Public Citizen. All rights reserved.

Despite a law requiring manufacturers to provide the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) with "immediate" notification of dangerous products, the agency typically delays nearly seven months after learning of dangerous, defective products before telling the public. A new Public Citizen study, Hazardous Waits: CPSC Lets Crucial Time Pass Before Warning Public About Dangerous Products, reveals that companies fined for tardy reporting took an average of 993 days -- 2.7 years nbsp;-- between learning of a safety defect in their products and notifying the CPSC. Perhaps as shocking, the CPSC then took an average of 209 additional days before disclosing the information to the public -- even though each case concerned a product defect so dangerous that the item was recalled. In response to this discovery, Public Citizen wrote a letter to Chairman Nancy Nord requesting information regarding cases in which the CPSC pursued criminal prosecution of manufacturers that withheld information from the Commission to cover up the discovery of dangerous or hazardous products.

Access this research:

Download now

Alternative access/additional info

Intended Audience: Advocates; General Public; Legislators/Legislative Aids; Policy Professionals; Researchers

Coverage: United States

Type/Format: Whitepaper; Policy Brief

Language code: English

Comment & Review

Add Your Comment

This is a new feature. Be the first to comment on this research!

Votes: 0 | Average Rating: n/a
Click to add your rating!

Tags that LabRats have added to this research:

Add your tags
View all tags

Related Research

Explore related research listed in the same issue areas.

Here are titles that might interest you:

View all related research

Share and Share Alike

The golden rule at IssueLab ... share the knowledge, share the love!

Looking for some attention? Contact us about current ad rates.

LabRat Libraries

Add this research to your own library.
Not a LabRat? register for free today.

IssueLab 4001 N. Ravenswood, Suite 602 Chicago, IL 60613 773-649-1790

IssueLab Copyright Policy: This Site and the Content are protected by U.S. and/or international copyright laws, and belong to IssueLab or its partners, affiliates, contributors or third parties. The copyrights in the Content are owned by IssueLab or other copyright owners who have authorized their use on the Site. You may download and reprint Content for non-commercial, non-public, personal use only. (If you are browsing this Site as an employee or member of any business or organization, you may download and reprint Content only for educational or other non-commercial purposes within your business or organization, except as otherwise permitted by IssueLab or the copyright owner).

Except where otherwise noted, all content on this website is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Copyright Infringement Notifications: If you have reason to believe that any material or activity on the IssueLab web site is infringing of the right(s) owned by you or someone else, for whom you have authority to act, please follow our DMCA Notice & Takedown Procedure.