This is why we need responsible government regulation. The article from the Arizona Republic outlines some of the most recent problems with Chinese products. Or how about this one. How about a little lead in your kid's bib?
This is precisely why trade agreements must be given more scrutiny. Free trade is fine as long as labor, safety and quality standards are the same, but they are not...
I don't want that much. I just want to feel reasonably certain that when I buy something that it will hurt me unknowingly. I would like to know that I buy my kid a bib it is not made with lead. I don't think that is too much to ask.
Especially given this phenomenon.
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It's funny how two people can hear the same facts and reach a totally opposite conclusion. To my mind, government regulation failed in this instance. What good did all our legislation regarding the sale of lead paint in products? What good did any governmental oversight committee do? It was a private consumer watch group that broke the story and forced the issue. To my mind, this was a market place success and a governmental failure.
I agree it is an abject failure of government regulation, but I don't think the market was effective at rooting this out. The problem that I see is that this group of Republicans is incapable and probably unwilling to regulate this sort of thing. The Bush Administration frequently appoints industry lobbyists to run these agencies. The simple fact is that expecting a group of people to properly manage this sort of thing when they do not believe that government itself cannot work is itself untenable.
I my opinion this is precisely what government should do, it is up there with national defense and building roads. Protecting you and me from dangerous products is simply not their goal. Their goal is to protect industry (big retailers in the US) and do as little as the law allows when it comes to protecting the public.
I am not even talking about anything extreme, how about a label that says this product contains lead. I can judge for myself if the information is available, but we have cut inspections and oversight to the point where they end up doing very little.
Furthermore, I think this issue dovetails with the dangers of not inspecting cargo for nuclear materials. We inspect very little cargo; maybe it is time to inspect cargo for a set of dangers, nuclear, lead, poisonous food etc. Or even better why not create a list of trusted and non-trusted exporters (China would not be trusted). If you qualify as non-trusted by some sort of numerical measure (say infraction per X number of cargo containers), then you pay a fee per cargo to pay for inspection, giving you an economic incentive to clean things up. Or make industry inspect their own products; make the company liable, not just legally, but criminally. Perhaps there is a market solution, where companies are criminally and legally liable, but they can have outside companies inspect the products and certify them. I don’t really care, I just don’t want lead in my kid’s bib.
Here here. Well said. Though, I suspect we'd see the same thing no matter what administration was in office. Never the less, I'm glad for organizations like the Center for Environmental Health. They seem to be doing a good job in this arena.
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