Senate staffer Peter Feldman nominated to final spot + additional term on CPSC
June 13, 2018, National Law Review (Keller and Heckman, LLP)
Senior counsel to the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee Peter Feldman has been nominated by President Trump as commissioner to the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). If confirmed, Feldman will fill the post left vacant by Joe Mohorovic, who resigned last October. Although Feldman would initially serve out Mohorovic’s term, which expires in October 2019, President Trump has already re-nominated him for a full 7-year term to follow immediately thereafter.
CPSC approves new federal safety standard for high chairs
June 12, 2018, cpsc.gov
In a 4-0 vote of Commissioners, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) has approved a new federal standard intended to improve the safety of all high chairs, including those intended for both home and restaurant use. The new federal safety standard incorporates the most recent voluntary standard developed by ASTM International (ASTM F404-18, Standard Consumer Safety Specification for High Chairs), with no modifications. The voluntary standard includes requirements for rearward stability and warning labels and requires that high chairs have a passive crotch restraint and a three-point restraint system
Community of over 85,000 parents select recipients of the parent tested approved consumer product awards
June 12, 2018, University Chronicle
A product awards organization announced the latest round of recipients to receive recognition with a Parent Tested Parent Approved Seal of Approval. The results come after a product approval process whereby parents (selected from a community of over 85,000 parent testers across North America) put products to the test in the context of their daily lives.
“Ask any mom how she chooses which stroller to buy, what food to give her family, and which housewares to buy and she’ll tell you she trusts other moms more than brand marketing,” said Sharon Vinderine, Founder and CEO of PTPA Media.
INSIGHT: Emerging Tech, Consumer Products: Will the CPSC Stifle or Incentivize Innovation?
June 13, 2018, BNA
A former staff member at the Consumer Product Safety Commission analyzes how the agency may impact emerging technologies. New consumer products increasingly leverage emerging technology, such as virtual and augmented reality (AR/VR), artificial intelligence (AI), robotics. and “smart products,” such as wearable technology and new products that are connected to the internet. For regulators, however, they pose interesting opportunities to make consumers safer and product recalls more effective; for consumers they can create potential serious dangers—some foreseeable, others not.
Judge halts stop sale order for Zen Magnets
June 13, 2018, Westward
A Colorado company that has battled the federal government for six years won some breathing room on Tuesday, June 12, after a judge ruled that the company hadn’t received a fair hearing in its efforts to stay in business and demonstrate the safety of its product. Shihan Qu launched his company, Zen Magnets, out of his home in Boulder in 2009, offering powerful, BB-sized magnets suitable for fidgeting, as an educational tool, or for making sculptures and complex geometric shapes. But officials at the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission viewed such products, known as small rare-earth magnets or SREMS, as a safety hazard because of reports of children accidentally ingesting the spheres
Volkswagen fined $1.2-billion by German authorities for emissions cheating scheme
June 13, 2018, New York Times
Even after Volkswagen was hit with billions of dollars in penalties in the United States over an emissions-cheating scheme that continues to unfold, the company remained mostly unpunished in Europe.That changed on Wednesday, when German prosecutors said they had imposed a fine of 1 billion euros, or $1.2 billion, on the carmaker for failing to properly supervise the employees who devised and deployed illegal software in diesel models to evade pollution controls.
Advocacy Study: California law caused nearly $8 million in losses for Texas companies
June 11, 2018, Times Record News
A California law meant to keep people safe from toxic chemicals has mutated into a cash cow for trial lawyers resulting in nearly $8 million in losses from Texas businesses. According to a report from the Center for Accountability in Science, Texas was the sixth most affected state with nearly $8 million in losses from Proposition 65 lawsuits. The Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act, Prop 65, began in 1986, as a California law that requires warning labels on products and areas that contain chemicals known to the state to cause cancer or reproductive harm.
The rise and fall of Toys R Us from a marketing perspective
June 14, 2018, WKTV
Toys R Us has been holding its liquidation sales at stores across the nation including the store in New Hartford. Many shoppers, loyal from the start, have returned for the sales, but also for the nostalgia. A marketing Professor says that one of the reasons for its demise was that the chain wasn’t offering anything special that would make it the only choice for people to buy toy.
Indian entrepreneur team wins $1 million prize for women’s safety device
June 7, 2018, Indian Express
A group of young Indian entrepreneurs, inspired to find solutions for women safety following the December 16, 2012 gangrape, have won a million dollar prize by developing a wearable smart device that women can use to send out emergency alerts if threatened or assaulted. New Delhi-based Leaf Wearables was among the five finalists selected from 85 teams hailing from 18 countries for the million dollar prize instituted by eminent Indian-American philanthropists Anu & Naveen Jain called ‘Women’s Safety XPRIZE’.
Opinion: The importance of building ethics into artificial intelligence
August 18, 2017, Mashable
“Elon Musk recently said that the threat of Artificial Intelligence is more dangerous than that of North Korea’s nuclear ambitions. While I don’t pretend to be a foreign policy expert, I’m confident that Musk’s commentary oversimplifies things at the very least. And that AI, when defined, built, cultivated and deployed with the right human oversight, has the potential to do significantly more good for the world than harm. In order to ensure Musk’s comments stay in the realm of extreme, though, the AI-focused technology community needs to collectively figure out some basic guide rails.“
