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Was The CPSC In The Pocket Of Big Business All Along?
November 2, 2007

Corruption in politics is no new concept.  This time, though, the repercussions hit very close to home.  In a Yahoo article entitled "CPSC Chief Traveled On Toy Makers' Dime" the Associated Press outlines how the current and former heads of the Consumer Products Safety Commission under the Bush administration accepted trips from the manufacturers whom they were supposed to oversee.  This sort of "gift" has the potential to weigh heavily on the CPSC chief's credibility... some would even view it as a bribe.

The article also states that the CPSC chief under President Clinton, Ann Brown, never took manufacturer funded trips.  If I remember correctly, we also did not have the same extent of recalls on children's toys during the Clinton years.  Could the two be correlated?  I don't know for sure that the current CPSC chief intentionally overlooked problems in foreign factories, in fact, I doubt that she did.  I do believe, though, that Senator Bob Menendez hit the nail on the head when he said, "It seems to me that while American children were playing with lead-filled toys, the people that should be looking out for them may have been working on their golf swings with corporate bigwigs."

The obvious tragedy here is the fact that so many American children have ingested chemicals from foreign-made toys.  So is there a bright side to this coming to light?  Well, obviously, if the truth has been revealed, policy makers will be pressed to take action against future incidents.  The real bright lining though, is that this news comes just in time for an election year.  In almost exactly one year, Americans will be headed to the polls.  This is where we, the American public, have the chance to make a difference. 

Posted by Kelly Nelson on November 2, 2007 | Comments (0)