Senators introduce new upholstered furniture flammability standards
October 4, 42018, Furniture Today
Two senators introduced a bill that would require the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission to adopt California Technical Bulletin (TB) 117-2013 as a federal flammability standard. The bill, Senate Bill 3551, or the Safer Occupancy Furniture Flammability Act (SOFFA) and an American Home Furnishings Alliance (AFHA)-backed bill, was introduced by Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Roger Wicker (R-MS). A House version of the bill was introduced in November 2017 by Rep. Morgan Griffith (R-VA)
Costco Agrees to $3.85 Million Civil Penalty, Compliance Program for Failure to Report Defective Trash Cans
October 5, 2018, cpsc.gov
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) announced that Costco Wholesale, Corp. (Costco), of Issaquah, Wash., has agreed to pay a $3.85 million civil penalty.
The settlement resolves CPSC staff’s charges that Costco knowingly failed to report to CPSC, as required by law, that the EKO Sensible Eco Living Trash Cans (EKO Trash Cans) contained a defect or created an unreasonable risk of serious injury.
Two year old boy dies after swallowing battery from popular kids toy
October 2, 2018, kidsport.com.au
Two-year-old Loevann was with his parents at a friend’s house when he started playing with a bunch of older kids who were playing with fidget spinners. It wasn’t until two days later that his parents knew there was anything wrong with their little boy from Polincove, in the south of France. “Our child started complaining about his teeth and had respiratory problems. We took him to the emergency room of the Calais hospital,” Loevann’s father, Florian explained.However, poor little Loevann never made it home.
CPSC holding compliance program seminar Nov. 1
October, 2018, cpsc.gov
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission’s Office of the General Counsel and Office of Compliance and Field Operations will hold a Compliance Program Seminar for interested outside parties on November 1, 2018 from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. at CPSC headquarters in Bethesda, MD. The seminar will be comprised of three educational panels. One panel will feature CPSC staff who will discuss compliance programs in relation to CPSA reporting requirements. A second panel will focus on industry experiences in compliance programs. The third will provide an industry trade association perspective on compliance plans. A registration link is provided.
Could Donald Trump’s taste for tariffs trap Captain America, Spider-Man toys, Barbie dolls and Transformers in the trade war?
October 6, 2018, South China Morning Post
Toys are one of the largest exports to the US from China annually. Toymakers, major job creators in Hong Kong, China and the US, are on edge as the Trump Administration has placed tariffs of up to 25 per cent on about half of all goods shipped from China.Spider-Man action figures, Barbie dolls and Transformers have escaped the clutches of the new levies, but could be affected if US President Donald Trump goes through with his threat of adding tariffs to all Chinese-made goods, which accounted for more than US$505 billion in exports to the US last year.
CTA encouraged by tech provisions in the new NAFTA
October 2, 2018, Herald Standard
Gary Shapiro, president and CEO, Consumer Technology Association (CTA) explains his group’s position on new United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA): “President Trump is making strong progress on reworking our trade agreements to support U.S. industries. The new NAFTA supports America’s innovation by reducing barriers to digital trade, preventing discrimination of America’s online payment platforms and eliminating technical barriers to trade.”
20 Toys parents used to buy for their kids in the 90s that are not allowed today
October 2, 2018, moms.com
Considering the amount of testing products supposedly undergo before regulatory agencies allow them on the market, it’s always surprising when something like a children’s toy is still recalled for a safety issue or a socially questionable gaffe.
The Big Hack: How China used a tiny chip to infiltrate American’s top companies
October 4, 2018, Bloomberg
The attack by Chinese spies reached almost 30 U.S. companies, including Amazon and Apple, by compromising America’s technology supply chain, according to extensive interviews with government and corporate sources. Nested on a critical servers’ motherboards within Amazon web services, testers found a tiny microchip, not much bigger than a grain of rice, that wasn’t part of the boards’ original design. Amazon reported the discovery to U.S. authorities, sending a shudder through the intelligence community.
Apple CEO Tim Cook says that it’s a ‘challenge’ getting Congress up to speed on the need for new privacy regulations
October 6, 2018, businessinsider.com
Apple CEO Tim Cook is reiterating his call for new government regulations to protect consumer privacy from tech companies.The amount of information about individual users stored online and on their phones is enormous, Cook said in an interview with Vice News Tonight. The tech industry hasn’t done a good job of respecting and protecting that data, he said.
Artificial intelligence: McKinsey talks workforce, training, and AI ethics
December 26, 2017, ZDNet
Research from the global consulting firms offers advice to business leaders on managing AI and creating successful strategies for adopting these new technologies. A discussion leader talks in a forum that brings together the most innovative thinkers in the world. In this column, his panel discusses three key business aspects of artificial intelligence that have emerged.
