Press Releases
Brendan Daly/Nadeam Elshami
202-226-7616
10/30/2007
Pelosi: We Must Do More to Protect Our Children From Unsafe Toys
“Good afternoon.
We’re gathered here this afternoon on a subject of very great concern to
“Twenty million imported toys, manufactured overseas, were
recalled this summer. Twenty million toys.
Some of these toys contained nearly 200 times the legal limit for
lead. Two hundred times.
“At the Consumer Safety Protection Commission, there is only
one inspector charged with testing toys to make sure that they are safe for our
children. There are toys being sold in our stores now that are untested and are
unsafe.
"Some of them are here.
This top is very dangerous in terms of the amount of lead that it
contains. This toy, with these little steel balls and the rest – this is suitable
for a four-year-old child according to the label, not suitable for a child
three years and under.
“And then this – this really breaks my heart because with
five grandsons I have Thomas the Train toys practically set up across the
country – but some of the Thomas the Train toys, not all, but some, are
dangerous to the health of our children.
“And I say not all, but some – why should it be up to the
moms and dads to be able to figure that out? Is it too much to expect the
government to live up to its responsibility to protect our children? We have a
consumer protection agency to do that.
“In a letter just last week, the chairwoman of the Consumer
Product Safety Commission, Nancy Nord, said she was opposed to increasing the
agency’s funding or authority. One person assigned to testing toys to ensure
that they are safe, and the Chairman of the Commission saying she is opposed to
expanding the authority or the funding.
“That is not what American parents want to hear. They want
to know that we are doing all we can to ensure that safe toys, safe food, and
safe medicine are available for our children.
“We stand here today because we do not believe that it is
too much for
“Already this year, we passed sweeping new drug safety
legislation, conducted vigorous oversight with toys and food safety hearings,
and increased funding for the Consumer Safety Product Commission while
toughening the fines that they can levy.
“Now, under the leadership of Chairman John Dingell and
Bobby Rush, the Chair of the Subcommittee, we are moving legislation that will
ban lead from children’s toys, will require testing of children’s products by
independent, third-party laboratories, that will provide the Consumer Product
Safety Commission with significantly greater resources to protect America’s
consumers.