CPSC Extends Comment Period For Bassinets And Cradles Standards: Identifies 5 Hazard Patterns
June 21, 2024, SBA Office of Advocacy
On June 18, 2024, the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) extended the public comment period for a proposed rule that amends safety standards for bassinets and cradles. The proposed rule removes the compact bassinet category and addresses five identified hazard patterns associated with young infants placed in or on. The proposed rule also requires warnings on all bassinets within the scope of the rule.
China Eyes Trade War Targets Across Europe For Counterstrikes
June 20, 2024, The Japan Times
As in past disputes, China looks to be readying a series of actions to punish the European Union for its proposed tariffs on Chinese-made electric cars. Things were different in the big trade war with the United States, which featured sweeping penalties on both sides. This time, Beijing’s targeted playbook looks more like the one it deployed against Australia a few years ago — with the government and state media already publicly identifying specific products that could get taxed. Here are some of the likely targets and the parts of Europe where the blow will land hardest.
Corporate Advocacy In A Time Of Social Outrage
Feb. 6, 2024, Harvard Business Review
Today’s employees, particularly young ones, expect their employers to speak out about the social, political and environmental issues they care about. Many organizations have complied, only to find themselves locked into a cycle of perpetual statement-making that is often tangential to their organizational priorities or runs against their political spending. Companies would be wise to reconsider how they determine what to prioritize and discuss internally and externally — and perhaps most important, how to involve employees early in the process.
Vitamix Expands Recall Of Blender Containers And Blade Bases To More Than 500,000, Citing Laceration Risk
June 21, 2024, Consumer Reports
Vitamix has expanded a recall of containers and blade bases from its Ascent and Adventurist series blenders that have been linked to 27 injuries. According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the injuries occurred when the containers separated from the base, exposing users’ hands to the blades. Eleven of those injuries were reported prior to a 2018 recall of 105,000 of the same 8-ounce and 20-ounce blending containers and blade bases. The most recent action raises the number of recalled containers and bases to 569,000. An additional 121,950 recalled components were sold in Canada.
CPSC Social Media Guide For Recalling Companies
June 20, 2024, cpsc.gov
Companies are expected to use any and all social media and mobile platforms on which the company maintains a presence including, but not limited to, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram, to notify consumers of the recall. Companies are encouraged to use paid advertising on social media. A Guide to Best Practices for Communicating Recalls on Social Media can also be found in Appendix D of The Recall Handbook.
More Than 70 Groups Urge NHTSA To Update Vehicle, Child Car Seat Fire Safety Standard
June 19, 2024, repairerdrivennews.com
Consumer Reports, the Green Science Policy Institute and the International Association of Fire Fighters delivered a letter and a petition with more than 32,000 signatures to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration calling on the agency to update its flammability standard for car interiors and child car seats. The groups claim the standard, FMVSS 302 is outdated and causes manufacturers to add harmful flame-retardant chemicals to seat foam and other materials. Those include chemicals known or suspected to cause cancer and are linked to reproductive and neurological harm. A May 2024 peer-reviewed study by Duke University, Green Science Policy Institute and University of Toronto researchers found that the air inside all 101 personal vehicles tested was polluted with harmful flame retardants.
Hundreds Of Maine Households Are Stranded In PFAS Limbo
June 16, 2024, centralmaine.com
About 500 Maine households rely on well water that is considered too contaminated to drink under new federal limits on forever chemicals – but not contaminated enough to qualify for state money to install the expensive filtration system needed to make it potable. And those are only the private wells that have been tested by the state. No one knows how many others there are that fall into the gray area between state and federal safety standards and have yet to be tested or aren’t located near a farm that used tainted sludge to fertilize its fields. They exist in a forever chemical limbo, created by conflicting regulatory standards and anxiety over the rising costs of taming Maine’s forever chemical problem. Maine didn’t make the toxic chemicals, but its environmental leaders concede that its now-defunct sludge recycling program made the problem worse.
Officials: Leave Fireworks To The Professionals
June 19, 2024, Jerseyshoreline.com
More than 2,000 children nationwide are injured each year by fireworks, with a large percentage of injuries taking place around the Fourth of July weekend. Store-bought legal fireworks and illegal explosive devices are the cause. Director of the Ocean County Board of Commissioners Barbara Jo Crea said, “many of our communities have exciting fireworks displays planned for the July Fourth holiday. I encourage our families and visitors alike to enjoy one or more of these professionally arranged spectacular shows.” The Consumer Product Safety Commission also has safety advice for the handling of common fireworks.
CPSC: Stop Using Xastro Fuel Bottles Due To Poisoning, Burn And Flash Fire Hazards; No Recall Or Remedy Offered
June 20, 2024, cpsc.gov
The Consumer Product Safety Commission is warning consumers to immediately stop using Xastro fuel bottles, sold by Zhengzhou Weipai Jiajuyou Xian Gongsi, because they pose a risk of poisoning and burns to children due to lack of a child resistant closure, which violates the Children’s Gasoline Burn Prevention Act. Furthermore, the fuel bottles pose a flash fire hazard to all users because they lack a flame mitigation device. Under the Portable Fuel Container Safety Act, portable fuel containers manufactured after July 12, 2023, must have flame mitigation devices that impede the propagation of a flame into the container.
Amazon Ditches Plastic Air Pillow Packaging In North America
June 20, 2024, Supply Chain Brain
Amazon says it has stopped using plastic air pillows in the vast majority of its packaging for deliveries in North America. As of June 20, the company has replaced 95% of its plastic pillows with recyclable paper fillers at its North America fulfillment centers, aiming to fully phase out the pillows by the end of 2024. Amazon estimates that this will eliminate roughly 15 billion plastic air pillows per year.
ACCC: Novelty Toy Supplier And The Operator Of Timezone, Kingpin And Zone Bowling Pay Penalties For Alleged Button Battery Testing Non-Compliance
June 19, 2024, accc.gov.au
Novelty toy supplier MDI International Pty Ltd (MDI) and the owner and operator of Timezone, Kingpin and Zone Bowling, TEEG Australia Pty Ltd (TEEG), have each paid $49,500 in penalties. This after the ACCC issued them with infringement notices for alleged breaches of the Australian Consumer Law, by failing to comply with the testing requirements of the button battery safety standard. The ACCC issued three infringement notices to each company in relation to the supply of three types of novelty toy products containing button batteries: the World’s Smallest Alarm Clock, the Pocket Fart Gun and the Sonic Spinner.
