Legislature(2007 - 2008)BUTROVICH 205
03/14/2008 01:30 PM Senate HEALTH, EDUCATION & SOCIAL SERVICES
Audio | Topic |
---|---|
Start | |
SB300 | |
SB280 | |
SJR18 | |
Adjourn |
* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
*+ | SB 280 | TELECONFERENCED | |
*+ | SB 288 | TELECONFERENCED | |
*+ | SJR 18 | TELECONFERENCED | |
+ | TELECONFERENCED | ||
+= | SB 300 | TELECONFERENCED | |
SJR 18-CHILD PRODUCT SAFETY 2:26:05 PM CHAIR DAVIS announced consideration of SJR 18. SENATOR BILL WIELECHOWSKI, sponsor of SJR 18 said he had first- hand experience with concerns about toy safety because his 15 month old daughter had a lot of toys and put everything into her mouth. He had no idea whether the toys were safe, if they had lead or methylates in them or not. The testing mechanisms just didn't exist. KAT PUSTAY, Staff to Senator Wielechowski, read the sponsor statement as follows: SJR 18 calls on the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) to test the materials used in toys and children's products for hazardous chemicals like lead. Over $15 billion worth of toys and children's products were brought into the United States in 2006. In 2007 almost $10 billion came in from China alone. In 2007 over half the toy and child product recalls by the CPSC were due to lead or chemical poisoning hazards. The CPSC is an independent federal regulatory agency that was created in 1972 by the Consumer Product Safety Act to protect the public against unreasonable risks of injury and death associated with consumer products. Currently the CPSC conducts tests only to determine if a toy presents a choking, aspiration or ingestion hazard, but relies on toy and child product manufacturers to self-regulate the materials used (and thus toxicity levels) in their products. In essence, the CPSC checks for choking hazards but not the effects of sucking on a pacifier for many hours a day. Children's bodies and brains are developing and are more susceptible to the hazardous impacts than adults. We should do what we can to limit their exposure. Alaskan parents rely on the regulatory agency to insure the health of their children just as Senator Wielechowski said in his own experience, so we ask that the Alaska State Legislature urge the CPSC to increase safety testing on chemicals used in toys and child products. 2:29:11 PM KRISTIN RYAN, Director, Division of Environmental Health, Department of Environmental Conservation, offered support for the legislation . She said that Congress was considering legislation called the Consumer Product Safety Modernization Act, which addressed this issue and others; so it was timely that they would urge the President to approve this legislation. 2:30:17 PM Susan Ely, Legislative and Communications Manager, Alaska Conservation Alliance (ACA), a consortium of 40 conservation groups based in Alaska, thanked the committee for allowing her to testify in support of SJR 18 . This legislation addressed an issue that had recently come to the forefront as over 29 million toys were recalled the previous year, many because of high levels of lead, sometimes as much as 200 times over the safety limit. The most recent recall occurred on Wednesday [March 12, 2008] when the CPSC recalled the X Force Commander airplanes and Super Famous cars and motorcycles because of excessively high lead concentrations. MS. ELY stated that Congress had not adopted any major changes to this legislation in over 18 years; 85 percent of toys were being manufactured in other countries, many of them without product safety standards. The number of imports had increased about 200 percent in 10 years and, as of October 2007, the CPSC had only one person testing toys, only 15 inspectors policing all of the consumer imports, and no federal agency studying the cumulative effects of toxicity. She said the United States Senate recently approved a bill that would increase staff and budget and create a public database of product complaints. It would also give power to state prosecutors if they felt that the federal government was not doing enough. In closing, she said this resolution would encourage the federal government to give the CPSC the tools and resources it needed to test the toys entering homes across America and give Alaskan parents a tool to make sure they can make safe and healthy decisions about the toys they are buying and bringing into their homes. She added that Alaskans were exposed to more than the average citizen because of the deposition of chemicals in Northern climates and encouraged the committee to pass SJR 18. CHAIR DAVIS said she didn't have a quorum to move the bill so she would hold SJR 18 in committee until Monday.
Document Name | Date/Time | Subjects |
---|