![]() Consumer Product Safety Commission’s seal | |
Agency overview | |
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Formed | October 24, 1972 |
Headquarters | Bethesda, Maryland, U.S. |
Employees | 500 [1] |
Agency executives |
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Website | www.cpsc.gov |
The United States Consumer Product Safety Commission (USCPSC, CPSC, or commission) is an independent agency of the United States government. The CPSC seeks to promote the safety of consumer products by addressing "unreasonable risks" of injury (through coordinating recalls, evaluating products that are the subject of consumer complaints or industry reports, etc.); developing uniform safety standards (some mandatory, some through a voluntary standards process); and conducting research into product-related illness and injury. [2] In part due to its small size, the CPSC attempts to coordinate with outside parties—including companies and consumer advocates—to leverage resources and expertise to achieve outcomes that advance consumer safety. [3] The agency was created in 1972 through the Consumer Product Safety Act. The agency reports to Congress and the President; it is not part of any other department or agency in the federal government. [4] The CPSC has five commissioners, who are nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate for staggered seven-year terms. [4] Historically, the commission was often run by three commissioners or fewer. [5] Since 2009, however, the agency has generally been led by five commissioners, one of whom serves as chairman. The commissioners set policy for the CPSC. The CPSC is headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland. [1]
The commissioners of the CPSC are appointed by the U.S. president and with the consent of the U.S. Senate. As with some other U.S. federal independent agencies, commissioners are selected as members of political parties. Although the president is entitled by statute to select the chairman (with the consent of the Senate), [6] no more than three commissioners may belong to the same party. [7] Thus, the president is generally expected to consult with members of the opposite party in the Senate to select members of the commission from the opposite party. The commissioners (including the chairman) vote on selecting the vice chairman, who becomes acting chairman if the chairman’s term ends upon resignation or expiration. [8]
The commission is led by Chairman Alexander Hoehn-Saric, a Democrat. Prior to his 2021 confirmation, the commission had not had a Senate-confirmed chairman since 2017, when Elliot F. Kaye stepped down as chair following a White House request after Donald Trump’s inauguration. [9] In March 2020, President Trump nominated Nancy Beck, an official at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency who previously worked for an association representing the U.S. chemical industry, [10] to chair the commission, but it was not acted on by the Senate. [11]
Name | Tenure | Position (acting or full) |
---|---|---|
Alexander Hoehn-Saric | 2021– | Full |
Robert S. Adler | 2019–2021 | Acting |
Ann Marie Buerkle | 2017–2019 | Acting |
Elliot F. Kaye | 2014–2017 | Full |
Robert S. Adler | 2013–2014 | Acting |
Inez Tenenbaum | 2009–2013 | Full |
Thomas Hill Moore | 2009 | Acting |
Nancy Nord | 2006–2009 | Acting |
Hal Stratton | 2 August 2002–15 July 2006 | Full |
Thomas Hill Moore | 2 November 2001–1 August 2002 | Acting |
Ann Brown | 10 March 1994–1 November 2001 | Full |
Jacqueline Jones-Smith | 27 November 1989–9 March 1994 | Full |
Anne Graham | 4 January 1989–26 November 1989 | Acting |
Terrence Scanlon | 17 July 1986–3 January 1989 | Full |
Anne Graham | 1 June 1986–16 July 1986 | Acting |
Carol G. Dawson | 21 December 1985–31 May 1986 | Acting |
Terrence Scanlon | 31 December 1984–20 December 1985 | Full (recess appointment) |
Nancy Harvey Steorts | 4 August 1981–30 December 1984 | Full |
R. David Pittle | 1 June 1981–3 August 1981 | Acting |
Stuart M. Statler | 1 February 1981–31 May 1981 | Acting |
Susan B. King | 6 March 1978– 31 January 1981 | Full |
S. John Byington | 2 June 1976– 30 June 1978 | Full |
Richard O. Simpson | 14 May 1973– 1 June 1976 | Full |
As of March 25, 2024, the commission had a Democratic majority, 3-to-2. [12]
Name | Party | Took office | Term expires |
---|---|---|---|
Alexander Hoehn-Saric (Chair) | Democratic | October 12, 2021 | October 27, 2027 |
Peter Feldman | Republican | October 5, 2018 | October 27, 2026 |
Richard Trumka Jr. | Democratic | December 2, 2021 | October 27, 2028 |
Mary T. Boyle | Democratic | June 30, 2022 | October 27, 2025 |
Douglas Dziak | Republican | March 25, 2024 | October 27, 2024 |
The CPSC regulates the manufacture and sale of more than 15,000 different consumer products, from cribs to all-terrain vehicles. Products excluded from the CPSC’s jurisdiction include those specifically named by law as under the jurisdiction of other federal agencies. For example, on-road automobiles are regulated by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, guns are regulated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, and drugs are regulated by the Food and Drug Administration.
The CPSC fulfills its mission by banning dangerous consumer products, establishing safety requirements for other consumer products, issuing recalls of products already on the market, and researching potential hazards associated with consumer products. [13]
The aspect of CPSC’s work that most U.S. citizens might recognize is the “recall,” formally a “corrective action” in which a company develops a “a comprehensive plan that reaches throughout the entire distribution chain to consumers who have the product” and addresses a potential or alleged failure of a product. [14] Recalls are nearly always voluntary. [15] While many recalls involve consumers returning consumer products to the manufacturer for a replacement or, more rarely, a refund, recalls have also involved tasks such as instructing users on how to clean an item [16] or publishing a software patch. [17] Most recalls recover very few consumer products, for a variety of hypothesized reasons. Industry and consumer advocates are often at odds over whether recalls need to be more effective, as many consumers may simply discard products that are the subject of recalls. Whether a consumer learns of a recall in the first place is a different question. One commissioner has called for companies to spend as much on recall advertising as the companies do on their advertising of the products before recalls. [18]
The CPSC makes rules about consumer products when it identifies a consumer product hazard that is not already addressed by an industry voluntary consensus standard, or when Congress directs it to do so. Its rules can specify basic design requirements, or they can amount to product bans, as in the case of small high-powered magnets, which the CPSC attempted to ban. [19] For certain infant products, the CPSC regulates even when voluntary standards exist. [20] The CPSC is required to follow a rigorous, scientific process to develop mandatory rules. Failing to do so can justify the revocation of a rule, as was the case in a Tenth Circuit decision vacating the CPSC’s ban on small high-powered magnets. [21]
The CPSC learns about unsafe products in several ways. The agency maintains a consumer hotline through which consumers may report concerns about unsafe products or injuries associated with products. Product safety concerns may also be submitted through SaferProducts.gov. The agency also operates the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS), a probability sample of about 100 hospitals with 24-hour emergency rooms. NEISS collects data on consumer product related injuries treated in ERs and can be used to generate national estimates.
The agency also works with and shares information with other governments, both in the U.S. (with states and public health agencies) and with international counterparts. [22]
The CPSC works on a variety of publicity campaigns to raise awareness of safety.
Annually, the CPSC blows up mannequins to demonstrate the dangers of improper use of fireworks. [23] [24]
See also Virginia Graeme Baker Pool and Spa Safety Act
In connection with the U.S. swimming season (the northern hemisphere’s summer, roughly May to September), the CPSC conducts the “Pool Safely” campaign to prevent drowning through methods such as building fences and supporting education programs. [25] [26] Other efforts include attempts to prevent suction entrapment, which can kill by trapping a swimmer underwater, by eviscerating a swimmer’s internal organs (when a suction tube lacks a cover), or otherwise. [27]
Since February 2015, the average civil penalty has been $2.9 million. [28] In April 2018, Polaris Industries agreed to pay a record $27.25 million civil penalty for failing to report defective off-road vehicles. [29]
In 1972 when the agency was created, it had a budget of $34.7 million and 786 staff members. By 2008 it had 401 employees on a budget of $43 million, but the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act passed in 2008 increases funding $136.4 million in 2014 with full-time employees to at least 500 by 2013. [30] Funding dropped to $127 million as of the commission’s fiscal year 2019 appropriation, [31] and it continues to have slightly more than 500 employees. [32]
The year 2007 was called the “Year of the Recall” by some CPSC-watchers in the United States. The CPSC worked with manufacturers and importers on a record 473 voluntary recalls that year, [30] and other U.S. federal agencies promoted other widely noted recalls. CPSC recalls included many incidents with lead in toys and other children’s products.
These issues led to the legislative interest in the reform of the agency, and the final result of these efforts was the passage of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act in 2008. The bill increased funding and staffing for the CPSC, placed stricter limits on lead levels in children’s products (redefined from products intended for children age seven and under to children age twelve and under), restricted certain phthalates in children’s toys and child care articles, and required mandatory testing and certification of applicable products. The Danny Keysar Child Product Notification Act required the CPSC to create a public database of recalled products and to provide consumers with a postage-paid postcard for each durable infant or toddler product. This act was named after Danny Keysar, who died in a recalled crib. [30] Danny’s parents, Linda E. Ginzel and Boaz Keysar, founded Kids In Danger and were instrumental in working with the CPSC to strengthen product safety standards.
The public database (saferproducts.gov), constructed at a cost of around US$3 million and launched in March 2011, “publicizes complaints from virtually anyone who can provide details about a safety problem connected with any of the 15,000 kinds of consumer goods regulated by the CPSC.” [33] While lauded by consumer advocates for making previously hidden information available, manufacturers have expressed their concern “that most of the complaints are not first vetted by the CPSC before they are made public,” meaning it could be abused and potentially used to target specific brands. [33] As of mid-April 2011, the database was accruing about 30 safety complaints per day. [33] By June 2018, the database had 36,544 reports, with an average of approximately 13.74 reports filed each day. [34]
In 2019, the CPSC recalled inclined sleepers sold by multiple companies (including Mattel Fisher-Price’s Rock ’n Play [35] as well as Kids II’s [36] and Dorel’s rocking sleepers sold under a variety of brand names). The recalled products were associated with more than 30 infant deaths according to contemporary news reports. [37] The controversy was among those that were tied to Acting Chairman Ann Marie Burekle’s announcement of her intention to step down after waiting for years for the U.S. Senate to act on her nomination to serve an additional term and be formally elevated to full chairmanship. [38]
The CPSC sued the maker of Britax jogging strollers, then settled with the company, in 2018. [39] Reports attributed the change to the change in personnel after Republicans gained a majority on the commission, [40] although some commentators noted the unusual circumstances of the commission suing over a product that met existing standards. [41] The 2018 settlement included the company’s agreement to provide a replacement part to consumers. The replacement part—a bolt—itself was later recalled [42] because it broke easily. [43]
In 2012, following reports of consumers (mostly children) ingesting small, high-powered magnets made of rare earth materials such as neodymium, the commission voted to block sales of Maxfield & Oberton’s Buckyballs-branded toys, [44] and later voted to issue a rule that would amount to a ban on all similar toys. [45] [46] Later, however, a federal appellate court overturned the ban, finding that the Commission had moved forward without adequate data. [47] The decision vacating the ban was written by later-Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch.
On November 2, 2007, The Washington Post reported that between 2002 and the date of their report, former chairman Hal Stratton and current commissioner and former acting chairman Nancy Nord had taken more than 30 trips paid for by manufacturing groups or lobbyists representing industries that are under the supervision of the agency. According to the Post, the groups paid for over $60,000 travel and related expenses during this time. [48]
The CPSC’s creation was not without controversy, and the agency survived attempts to close it in its first decades. In 1981, President Ronald Reagan’s head of the Office of Management & Budget, David Stockman, sought to end the authorization for the agency to move it inside the Department of Commerce. [49] The agency was given a new lease on life following agreement among U.S. senators. [50]
Lawn darts is a lawn game for two players or teams. A lawn dart set usually includes four large darts and two targets. The game play and objective are similar to those of both horseshoes and darts. The darts are typically 12 inches (30 cm) in length with a weighted metal or plastic tip on one end and three plastic fins on a rod at the other end. The darts are intended to be tossed underhand toward a horizontal ground target, where the weighted end hits first and sticks into the ground. The target is typically a plastic ring, and landing anywhere within the ring scores a point.
Inez Tenenbaum is an American lawyer and politician who served as South Carolina Superintendent of Education and as chairperson of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. In 2016, she joined a law firm. She is a member of the Democratic Party.
A rare-earth magnet is a strong permanent magnet made from alloys of rare-earth elements. Developed in the 1970s and 1980s, rare-earth magnets are the strongest type of permanent magnets made, producing significantly stronger magnetic fields than other types such as ferrite or alnico magnets. The magnetic field typically produced by rare-earth magnets can exceed 1.2 teslas, whereas ferrite or ceramic magnets typically exhibit fields of 0.5 to 1 tesla.
Magnetix is a magnetic construction toy that combines plastic building pieces containing embedded neodymium magnets, and steel bearing balls that can be connected to form geometric shapes and structures. Designed to be a cheaper version of the Geomag magnetic construction set, Magnetix's image suffered severely when an early manufacturing defect caused a death. It was sold under various brands after the defect was corrected.
The Consumer Safety Act (CPSA) was enacted on October 27, 1972, by the United States Congress. The act should not be confused with an earlier Senate Joint Resolution 33 of November 20, 1967, which merely established a temporary National Commission on Product Safety (NCPS), and for only 90-days. Section 4 of the 1972 act established the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) as a permanent independent agency of the United States federal government and defined its basic authority. The act gives CPSC the power to develop safety standards and pursue recalls for products that present unreasonable or substantial risks of injury or death to consumers. It also allows CPSC to ban a product if there is no feasible alternative to an outright ban. CPSC has jurisdiction over more than 15,000 different consumer products. The CPSA excludes from jurisdiction those products that expressly lie in another federal agency's jurisdiction, for example food, drugs, cosmetics, medical devices, tobacco products, firearms and ammunition, motor vehicles, pesticides, aircraft, and boats. These products may fall under the purview of agencies such as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the U.S. Department of Transportation, the U.S. Environment Protection Agency, and the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration.
Nancy Ann Nord is an American former commissioner of the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). She served alongside Hal Stratton, Anne Northup, and Ann Marie Buerkle.
Toy safety is the practice of ensuring that toys, especially those made for children, are safe, usually through the application of set safety standards. In many countries, commercial toys must be able to pass safety tests in order to be sold. In the U.S., some toys must meet national standards, while other toys may not have to meet a defined safety standard. In countries where standards exist, they exist in order to prevent accidents, but there have still been some high-profile product recalls after such problems have occurred. The danger is often not due to faulty design; usage and chance both play a role in injury and death incidents as well.
Maclaren is a manufacturer of baby buggies, strollers and carriers based in England.
In 2007, a series of product recalls and import bans were imposed by the product safety institutions of the United States, Canada, Western Europe, Australia, and New Zealand against products manufactured in and exported from the mainland of the People's Republic of China (PRC) because of numerous alleged consumer safety issues. The many product recalls within the year led Consumer Reports and other observers to dub 2007 "The Year of the Recall.”
Britax is a British manufacturer of childcare products including car seats, pushchairs and high chairs.
Kids in Danger (KID) is an American non-profit dedicated to educating parents, training engineers, designers, and manufacturers, and advocating for improvements in children's product safety in cribs, toys, bathtub seats, bunk beds, car seats, carriers, costumes, crib bumpers, high chairs, gates, play yards, strollers, walkers, and other potentially dangerous items. Its website supplies listings of products recalled by the Consumer Product Safety Commission and provides suggestions and information on how to protect children. KID also works alongside other groups such as the Consumer Federation of America and Consumer Reports in order to improve product safety.
The Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) of 2008 is a United States law signed on August 14, 2008 by President George W. Bush. The legislative bill was known as HR 4040, sponsored by Congressman Bobby Rush (D-Ill.). On December 19, 2007, the U.S. House approved the bill 407-0. On March 6, 2008, the U.S. Senate approved the bill 79-13. The law—public law 110-314—increases the budget of the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), imposes new testing and documentation requirements, and sets new acceptable levels of several substances. It imposes new requirements on manufacturers of apparel, shoes, personal care products, accessories and jewelry, home furnishings, bedding, toys, electronics and video games, books, school supplies, educational materials and science kits. The Act also increases fines and specifies jail time for some violations.
Pamela B. Gilbert is an American lawyer and has been a partner of the law firm Cuneo Gilbert & LaDuca, LLP since 2003, where she heads the firm's lobbying practice. Gilbert is a noted consumer rights advocate who has testified before Congress over fifty times and made dozens of appearances in the national print and electronic media. Gilbert leads the Committee to Support Antitrust laws (COSAL), an organization supportive of antitrust legislation.
Ann Marie Buerkle is an American nurse, attorney, and politician. She served as a commissioner of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) beginning in July 2013 and was the agency's acting chairman from February 2017 to September 2019. During her tenure, the number of companies fined declined sharply, and she was criticized by consumer advocates. Buerkle’s public service career stalled after accusations of mismanagement and incompetence. Buerkle was an Assistant New York State Attorney General from 1997 through 2010. She served as the U.S. representative for the New York's 25th congressional district, elected in 2010 in an upset of a Democratic incumbent. In a rematch of her 2010 contest, Buerkle was defeated by former Congressman Dan Maffei. She is a member of the Republican Party.
Robert S. Adler is a consumer advocate in the United States. He was a member of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, and recently served as its acting chairman from October 2019 to October 2021. He is a Democrat, and became acting chair due to a surprise vote crossing party lines from former acting chair Ann Marie Buerkle.
Elliot F. Kaye is a former Chairman of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. He served as a commissioner of the agency from 2014 through 2021, and was chairman from 2014 to 2017 under the Obama administration, directing the U.S. government's oversight and recall of everyday products that can cause injury or death.
Peter A. Feldman is an American lawyer and currently serves as a member of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. Feldman was nominated by President Donald J. Trump and confirmed by the U.S. Senate in 2018. Previously, he served as a senior counsel to the Commerce Committee in the U.S. Senate. Feldman is a Republican, and worked as a staffer for various Republican senators.
Alexander Hoehn-Saric is an American attorney and government official. Since October 2021, Hoehn-Saric has served as chair of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, concurrently serving as a commissioner. Hoehn-Saric is a Democrat.
Richard Louis Trumka Jr. is an American lawyer and government official. He is currently a member of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, serving since December 2021.
The Rock 'n Play was a baby sleeper produced by Fisher-Price. The product launched in 2009 and sold 4.7 million units before its initial recall in 2019. Approximately 100 infant deaths have been connected with use of the sleeper.
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