Speak Out Against Unsafe Imports
Posted on September 11, 2007
by Maureen Keene
The government is seeking input from American consumers on the issue of dangerous imports. A press release on WebWire states:
The Interagency Working Group on Import Safety is announcing a public meeting to explore actions that public and private stakeholders can take to promote the safety of products imported into the United States.
The public meeting will be held from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 1, 2007, in the Jefferson Auditorium, South Building, U.S. Department of Agriculture, 1400 Independence Ave., SW., Washington, D.C. 20250.
The objective of the public meeting is to identify and recommend actions that government, industry and consumers involved in the production, distribution, regulation and use of imported products can take to promote the safety of such products.
Go to http://www.fda.gov/dockets/ecomments and voice your concerns. (Click on Search Dockets and enter Docket ID 2007N-0330.)
Here are some suggestions on steps the U.S. government can take to improve the safety of imports:
- Increase funding and authority for government safety agencies including the FDA and CPSC.
- Set a minimum for imported food testing. (The current 1% is unacceptable. The EU tests 20% of imported foods.)
- Require country of origin labeling for food ingredients so that consumers can make informed choices about the food we buy.
- Ban lead in all children’s products.
- Require third-party safety testing of all toys and children’s products before they are put on store shelves.
- Increase penalties for manufacturers and retailers who do not fully and immediately cooperate with product recalls.
- Stop U.S. companies from exporting the goods that do not meet our safety standards to other countries.
Popularity: 55% [?]
Comments
One Response to “Speak Out Against Unsafe Imports”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Loading ...
I find it fascinating that in just a matter of years we’ve let foreign governments practically dictate what we do in this country, and how we do it.
How can we continue to let major American companies take business abroad, for their own benefit, at the expense of the health and livelihood of our own people? How can we continue to allow these companies to make us literally sick, or worse, kill us (our children, our pets). What is it going to take to make us wake up and boycott these companies?
Mattel just apologized to the Chinese people for their responsibility in the recent toy recalls. That to me is a blatant slap in the face to the American consumer. How dare they? It really doesn’t matter who’s responsible, at this point what they’re telling us is “we care more about what the Chinese think of us, than what the people at home do.” Perhaps that’s because we haven’t done much in the past to make them think otherwise. Their stock is still strong, and that, apparently, is all they care about.
I wonder if, with the holidays approaching, Americans simply boycotted Mattel toys overall, if the company would still sing the same tune. How about shopping for books instead or other safe toys, made -I don’t know- in America, maybe? How about donating all the Mattel toys you can find at home to, say, the recycle bin? Or, better yet, send them all back to Mattel with a note: Thank you, but we’d rather have our children play with safe toys.
We need to take responsibility for what we allow to happen. At the same time, we can also take action and make it stop.