White House Re-nominates Ann Marie Buerkle for chair and commissioner
January 18, 2019, The National Law Review (Keller and Heckman)
On January 16, 2019, the White House re-nominated Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) Acting-Chair Ann Marie Buerkle to be Chairman, and for another seven-year term as Commissioner. Acting Chair Buerkle was first nominated in July of 2017, and re-nominated in January of last year, but the Senate did not act on these nominations.
Advocacy: Congress needs to address consumer data privacy
January 16 . 2019, The Hill (Sen. Marco Rubio opinion)
Your data is incredibly valuable, and for the most part, it is not even yours. But use of your personal data is governed by antiquated laws that do not work in the modern economy. The time has come for Congress to address consumer data privacy in a candid, responsible and modern manner.
Critic’s Choice: The best bike helmets you can buy*
January 14, 2019, Seattle Pilot Intelligencer
Wearing a bike helmet is incredibly important for a cyclist’s safety, so we’ve rounded up the best bike helmets you can buy. The POC Octal X SPIN is the best bike helmet we’ve tested with its great ventilation, protective design, enhanced visibility, and other great safety features.
*A share of revenue from each sale goes to the organization promoting the product
Opinion: Inside the $3 billion race to kill plastic
January 16, 2019, Fast Company
I’ll admit it’s taken me a while to come to terms with how dire the environmental crisis is. I assumed my everyday eco-friendly behaviors–like recycling and bringing reusable bags to the grocery store–were helping to stave off plastic pollution and carbon pollution. But the numbers are in, and it’s clear that an apocalyptic disaster is hurtling toward us much faster than we previously anticipated.
A New Tactic In The War Against Plastic Waste
January 15, 2019, NPR
Plastic is to our time what wood was for millennia. But unlike wood, most plastic doesn’t go away. It ends up as trash in streets, rivers, lakes and oceans. It breaks down into microplastic — particles a tenth of an inch or smaller — and gets into our food and water. The health effects are largely unknown. News stories feature dead whales and turtles with stomachs full of plastic. Activists built a huge floating net to collect it (which recently failed). Concerned citizens clean up beaches. But that’s not helping much. Eight million tons of plastic wash into oceans every year.
Beyond Compliance – The warnings development process: Free Feb. 12 SPSP webinar
January 17, 2019, Society of Product Safety Professionals
While ensuring compliance with relevant standards regarding warnings is useful, product safety professionals should also consider whether additional warnings are needed, and be familiar with methods for developing such warnings. This webinar will walk listeners through steps that are typical of a warnings development process:
Wrap-Up of Federal and State Chemical Regulatory Developments, January 2019
January 17, 2019, JDSupra (Bergeson & Campbell)
EPA Denies TSCA Section 21 Petition Seeking Increased Asbestos Reporting.
Virginia Beach family says hoverboard started fire inside home
January 17, 2018, WAVY.com
A Virginia Beach family is reminding you to be careful after they say a hoverboard started a fire inside their home. The family said the device was charging when the flames started. The fire broke out on Tuesday while they were already in bed for the night. quick thinking and being prepared kept this situation from having a different outcome.
Safety checks on fireworks aim to ensure safer holiday
January 17, 2019, China.org.cn
The State Administration for Market Regulation said that random inspections had found that 23 of the 150 batches of fireworks checked were substandard. The biggest problems found were shorter ignition times and loose fuses, which can pose safety hazards, it said. Random inspections at fireworks production factories were undertaken in the past few months in the provinces of Hunan, Jiangxi, Hubei, Sichuan, Guizhou and in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region.
Four Audi executives charged in new emissions manipulation case
January 17, 2019, NewsChannel 5 (Tennessee)
Four senior officials at Audi have been indicted in the United State District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, accused of using devices to cheat on emissions tests with several different vehicle models. The scheme is similar to one that federal officials say was run by Audi’s parent company Volkswagen.
12 Step program for boards of directors to make ethics and compliance a priority
January 16, 2019, EIN Newswire
Boards of directors – and their companies – can get into serious trouble, legally and financially, if they fail to oversee ethics and compliance (E&C) robustly, which according to a survey of Chief Ethics and Compliance Officers (CECOs) seems to be unfortunately common.
