A couple of editorials in tomorrow’s New York Times that will get your heart pumping … first, “Playing Games With Toy Safety“:
With the holiday season approaching, there is more bad news about the federal agency charged with protecting children from unsafe toys. Nancy Nord, acting chairwoman of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, joined industry lobbyists in opposing a Senate bill intended to strengthen her enfeebled agency. That was followed by the revelation that Ms. Nord and her predecessor took free trips from the toy industry.
Second, “Republican Tricks on Children’s Health“:
For weeks now, the president and his Congressional allies have charged that the Democrats are unwilling to negotiate a compromise on expanding the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, or S-chip, because they want to use Republican opposition as a campaign issue. But it is the Senate’s Republican leaders who are doing their best to block any compromise.
They clearly would prefer to have no bill enacted — and provide ammunition for the president’s campaign to depict Congress as a failure — than do anything meaningful to help children.
Words fail.
The current Repugs, apparently having been hatched from pods, fail to grasp this important rule: Don’t mess with people’s kids!
Rich white Republican kids may not need SCHIP, but they do ask Santa, or Hanukkah Harry or whomever, for toys that were made in China for the U.S. market. And working-class, “what’s the matter with Kansas” Republican kids won’t even be treated for their post-holiday lead poisoning, if there’s no SCHIP.
Oh, what a bunch of maroons. 2008 could be the biggest Dem landslide in living memory, come Hillary or high water.
As far as I’m concerned, we can end the Republican party.
I am no lawyer, but the risk that tainted toys with extreme levels of lead the risk approaches certainty.. and will be distributed by major toy manufacturers who are making promises that everything is OK. When it’s not OK, it seems like class-action suits will follow, and juries will be in the mood to award.
What I do not see, is how the toy industry is protecting itself – or children. They have to know what’s about to happen. Or is there a plan we are unaware of? Something like the telecom amnesty bill?
Maha,
This may be a classic case of leader’s who can’t lead because of lead.
They are led to conculsions by lead; and that lead in the head is leading them toward’s not leading. If it weren’t for lead, they might lead. But being led there, is so much easier….
Which might explain why we have no “LEADER’S!!!”
Ingesting lead, might prevent leadership!!!
Being led is easier than leading…
LEAD, follow, or get the f@$# out of the way!!!!!!!!!!!
Hey Maha,
The link on comment 4 is to a porn site.I hit it out of curiosity, hope my computer doesn’t get a virus.
Thank you for the tip, erinyes. FYI, the new comment #4 does not link to any porn sites, I don’t think.
Having finally reaped the benefit of eliminating lead from gasoline, as the children grew up less criminal and violent, now we get to look forward to another generation damaged by overexposure. I was struck particularly by the story of Halloween costume scary teeth painted with lead. Could you invent a better lead delivery system for children short of just putting it in the candy bars?
There are times when it seems like the actions (or inactions) of the Bushistas can’t just be incompetence, and one is forced to consider conspiracy. Or perhaps they are some kind of antisocial idiot/savants, ‘gifted’ with a preternatural ability to find ways to harm and destroy.
I laughed to myself not long ago about the Chinese- who needs nukes? when you can kill the dogs poison the children and do the adults in with toothpaste? But seeing this also It’s not only the chinese is it? The Repubs are so in bed with corporations they are all having a free vacation while we are all being slowly poisoned.
I guess we won’t be boiled frogs, we will be poisoned ones.
a note- my son’s 80lb doberman was killed by her dog food earlier this year. it there’s enough poison to kill her , there’s enough to kill a person.
Toy safety is a topic dear and near to my heart. I lived in Western NY near East Aurora where Fisher Price were made. I had many friends who worked there and made decent living wage (this was in the 60’s-80’s). FP paid profit sharing and had a loyal workforce.
When Mattel took over they started closing the plants and sending the work Mexico, I guess the Mexicians were too expensive so on to China. This is truly an American disgrace, we can’t keep our kids safe, provide health Ins for struggling familys but will tolerate lead in toys and the CEO of Mattel appologizes to the Chinese. What a World!!!!!
Yet another reason to “throw the bums out!”. Once we understand the real reason most are in office (personal aggrandizement), their seemingly foolish actions make sense. Getting money from outsourcers, off-shorers, polluters, etc. benefits many an elected official in ways that just swamp any little ole’ effect that health and safety have on the individual voter. (Here in Idaho it took many years for officials in the Silver Valley, vastly polluted with lead and other heavy metals, to agree to let the Superfund folks clean up the polluted water and soil that was damaging kids’ nervous systems, because they were afraid it would harm business and the tourism industry if it were public knowledge.)
I subscribed to the FDA’s alert system for food recalls–the recalls are almost daily now, thanks to increased testing starting this summer after the pet food contamination came to light.
Stop and think for a moment what went by untested until this summer.
Then see how many top officials in the USDA and FDA are on loan from industry.
Here is what I don’t understand: why are we surprised? We couldn’t have really thought that Communist China “valued” human life as much as our self-righteous culture does. If we did then we were just fooling ourselves in a quest for the latest and greatest pile of crap at wal-mart.
Working parents of young kids are losing enough sleep as it is. The last thing they need is to have to stay up all night trying to figure out which of their kids’ toys have been—or should be—recalled.
Two key reforms must take place to stem the tide of dangerous toys. One is stricter federal regulation, and the other, an organic shift in the very way that toy companies do business. Multibillion dollar toy retailers are perfectly positioned to demand stricter safety standards from their suppliers. Whether or not they do so is purely a question of priorities—cheap-at-any-cost supply vs. child safety?
This Christmas—and until this appalling tolerance for toxic toys on the shelves passes—we’ll skip the toy store and give the kids in our lives savings bonds. They may or may not be worth anything in a few years, but at least we can be reasonably sure the bonds won’t poison them. Learn more at http://www.toxicplayroom.org.