Acting Chairman Ann Marie Buerkle: CPSC Update
February 10, 2018, Product Safety Network News
Acting Chairman Buerkle shares with product safety stakeholders an updated review of agency programs, personnel, and recent actions and issues at the Consumer Product Safety Commission.
Leadership in cultural change
February 2, 2018, JDSupra
“Context matters when assessing a culture’s strategic effectiveness. Leaders must simultaneously consider culture styles and key organizational and market conditions if they want their culture to help drive performance.”
A strategic approach to managing product recalls
From an article in the September-October, 1996 Harvard Business Review
Chastened, Intel CEO Andrew Grove reflects on his company’s behavior and treatment of customer concerns when issues began to escalate over flawed Pentium microprocessors. He notes: “the kernel of the issue we missed…was that we presumed to tell somebody what they should or shouldn’t worry about, or should or shouldn’t do.” The cost of the recall was estimated at close to $500 million. Grove, usually held in high regard by Wall Street and the business press, had learned about recalls the hard way.
Dingell introduces legislation to keep children’s cosmetics safe
February 7, 2018, Congresswoman Debbie Dingell’s Office
The Michigan Congresswoman introduced legislation mandating that all cosmetics marketed to children are demonstrated to be free of asbestos or otherwise carry a warning label. Dingell introduced the Children’s Product Warning Label Act of 2018 after accessories retailer Claire’s pulled 17 products from their shelves in December after asbestos was found in cosmetics marketed to children.
Global Water quality, environmental production, and reuse regulations report 2017
February 6, 2018, Market Watch
Regulations and water quality standards define the market for water technology. However, these definitions are shifting in markets across the globe. The Global Regulations Package helps readers to understand the opportunities emerging from water, wastewater and sludge regulations and plan your business strategy accordingly. The Package provides you with an extensive directory of relevant information, including the countries which are leading the way in addressing issues, and the relationship between developments in technology and regulation.
Boating Industry group issues white paper on California Proposition 65
February 7, 2018, boatingindustry.com
National Marine Manufacturers Association members manufacture, distribute, and sell a wide variety of products, and many of them are sold into California. These products may contain chemicals known to the State of California to cause cancer, birth defects or other reproductive harm, and may therefore require a warning under the California Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act, otherwise known as Proposition 65. A warning required in California may impact products sold nationally or internationally. This fact sheet provides a general summary of Proposition 65, including an overview of new regulations that take effect in August 2018.
Editorial: Chicken Little lives in California
February 4, 2018, Chicago Tribune/vcstar.com
Warning: If you live in California, your highly anticipated, absolutely essential and delicious morning cup of coffee may soon come with a warning. A state judge will rule in the coming months whether coffee should be labeled as carcinogenic under California law, The Wall Street Journal reports. Why? Because coffee, elixir of the gods, contains acrylamide, a flavorless chemical produced in the roasting process.
Editorial: Stronger federal action still needed on combustible dust
February 6, 2018, Savannah Morning News
A decade removed from a combustible dust accident that killed 14 and severely injured 39 people, and 12 years after the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board first called for relevant regulations, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration “refuses to take steps to enact a “Most Wanted” regulation to protect American workers.”
His wireless Apple headphone started smoking during a workout. Then it exploded, he said.
February 9, 2018, Washington Post
Jason Colon rolled the blackened Apple AirPod in his hand, still in disbelief that the wireless headphone had apparently blown apart moments after he removed it from his right ear. He had been working out at an LA Fitness center in St. Petersburg, Fla. listening to dance music, when white smoke began to leak from the right headphone
Are fidget spinners a health hazard?
February 8, 2018, Medical News Today
Recently, the Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition released a collection of papers that outlined the potential health hazards of fidget spinners. The authors call for tighter regulation.
How Volkswagen paid $25 billion for “Dieselgate” – and got off easy
February 6, 2018, Fortune
Volkswagen has been hit with huge penalties in the U.S. for the emissions scandal, but not in Europe. Are the German automaker’s senior executives likely to face any prison time?
