Appellate Court opens door to jury trials in Proposition 65 cases
August 30, The National Law Review (Greenberg Traurig, LLP)
The California Court of Appeal, First Appellate District (First District) recently reversed course on an important issue in the Proposition 65 world by indicating that a jury trial may be available to defendants in certain circumstances. The decision, Nationwide Biweekly Administration, Inc., et al., v. The Superior Court of Alameda County, Opinion, A150264, (June 13, 2018), rebuked both the legal reasoning and conclusion of the First District’s precedent on the issue, DiPirro v. Bondo Corp., 153 Cal.App.4th 150 (2007), which held that Proposition 65 defendants did not have a right to a jury trial.
Lego wants to remake its product out of sustainable material
August 31, 2018, Star Tribune
Lego is trying to refashion the product it is best known for: It wants to eliminate its dependence on petroleum-based plastics, and build its toys entirely from plant-based or recycled materials by 2030. The challenge is designing blocks that click together yet separate easily, retain bright colors, and survive the rigors of being put through a laundry load, or the weight of an unknowing parent’s foot. In essence, the company wants to switch the ingredients, but keep the product exactly the same.
CPSC’s Pool Safely and the Michael Phelps Foundation honor a decade of water safety; “zero drain entrapment-related deaths”
August 25, 2018, cpsc.gov
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission’s (CPSC) Pool Safely campaign and the Michael Phelps Foundation today honored the 10th anniversary of the Michael Phelps Foundation and the 10 years since the passage of the Virginia Graeme Baker (VGB) Pool & Spa Safety Act with an event promoting water safety. CPSC’s Acting Chairman Ann Marie Buerkle and Michael Phelps delivered remarks about each organization’s decade milestone and the continued importance of water safety.
“As a result of the landmark VGB legislation, there have been zero drain entrapment-related deaths involving children in public pools and spas over the past decade,” said Acting Chairman Buerkle.
Schumer calls for toxic chemicals study on school supplies
August 23, 2018, Hudsonvalley360.com
U.S. Senate Minority Leader Charles B. Schumer, D-N.Y., is calling on the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission to study school supplies for possible hazardous chemicals and take action as the 2018-19 school year fast approaches. Schumer asked the commission to analyze school products for hazardous chemicals and make the results available to the public
How Confer Plastics decided to issue a product recall for its pool steps.
August 24, 2018, The Buffalo News
Bob Confer was at his North Tonawanda manufacturing plant last month when a call came in. A child had stuck his arm into a ventilation opening in a set of Confer Plastics pool steps and gotten stuck. Aside from some scratches, the child got out OK. But what if they hadn’t? What if the child had been underwater, unable to breathe and unable to get free? Confer didn’t want to find out.
California passes sweeping flame retardant legislation
August 29, 2018, asmdc.org
On a bipartisan 52-13 vote, the California State Legislature passed a sweeping ban on household products containing toxic flame retardant chemicals. AB 2998, introduced by Assembly member Richard Bloom (D-Santa Monica), who issued a news release on the matter, prohibits the sale of juvenile products, specified mattresses and mattress components, and upholstered or reupholstered furniture in California that contain unnecessary toxic flame retardant chemicals.
JPMA seeks exemption of child seats, cribs from China tariffs
August 23, 2018, Furniture Today
Citing issues involving child safety, the Juvenile Products Manufacturers Assn. has asked that child car seats and cribs be exempted from the list of products subject to pending Section 301 tariffs on Chinese-made products. On its website, the association said it expects that the tariffs will cause higher prices on such goods and make them inaccessible to many consumers, thereby potentially posing safety risks for children.
Statement from FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, M.D., on FDA’s support for exempting coffee from California’s cancer warning law
August 30, 2018, Food & Drug Administration
The statement includes the following: “Ensuring that food is safe and truthfully labeled is one of our fundamental responsibilities at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Consumers deserve accurate information about the food they eat and how it can affect their health and nutrition. That’s why Congress entrusted the FDA to serve as the nation’s expert on food safety and labeling and to craft predictable, uniform federal requirements on matters within our jurisdiction. Part of our mission in this space means ensuring that food product labeling doesn’t contain false or misleading statements about safety or nutrition. This includes statements that food manufacturers make on their own initiative. But it also includes statements that may be compelled under state law.”
Retailers leery of additional tariffs that would target consumer goods
August 30, 2018, Chicago Tribune
The potential impact of a new round of tariffs proposed by the Trump administration has loomed large over the retail industry during the past week even as companies like Target and Home Depot have reported strong quarterly sales. Retailers say they’re keeping a close eye on tariffs — both the tariffs already in place and a potential future round that could cover more consumer goods.
Baby Orca death has Washington State weighing regulatory overhaul
August 28, 2018, Bloomberg BNA
The spectacle of a mother orca hauling her dead calf through Puget Sound and north to the Salish Sea for at least 17 days this summer raised the chances of more rigorous regulation of development and commerce throughout Washington state. The saga of southern resident killer whale J-35 unfolded in wrenching portrayals in the morning papers and nightly newscasts before she finally let the baby slide off her back around Aug. 11. Suddenly, the mission of the Washington governor’s Southern Resident Killer Whale Recovery and Task Force—convened some three months before—gained the kind of political momentum that comes with the daily unfolding of the singular tragedy.
Who’s afraid of mandatory standard?
August 23, 2018, Business Mirror (Philippines)
An industry leaders describes the issue on the need to place flat glass back on the list of items under mandatory standard, after it was temporarily removed from the list by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) at the height of port congestion at the country’s two major ports several years back. Apparently, the author says his call for the DTI to reconsider their standard compliance requirements for flat glass, after reports of cheaper but lower-quality imported flat glass being sold in the local market were noted, coupled with our concern for consumer safety because of fatal glass-related accidents happening all over the world, may have caused alarm to some interest groups, claiming that putting back flat glass in the mandatory standard list is restrictive and is aimed at controlling the market by a local glass manufacturer.
Trump set to tap centrist to head EPA’s chemical safety office
August 30, 2018, The Washington Post
When President Trump first took office and was looking for someone to head the Environmental Protection Agency’s chemical safety division, it didn’t go well. He nominated Michael Dourson, a University of Cincinnati professor whose research had been used for years by chemical firms and other companies to challenge claims that their products posed a public health risk. After North Carolina’s two Republican senators publicly declared their opposition, and a third Republican suggested she would vote no, Dourson withdrew his name from consideration in December. Now, Trump is poised to shift course. He plans to nominate a centrist to head the EPA’s Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention Office.
