By Staff
Last week, the United States House of Representatives unanimously passed consumer safety legislation which hopefully will save lives.
We applaud Michigan's Congressman Fred Upton's efforts to overhaul the current recall registration system for children's products.
Upton, a Republican, coauthored the Danny Keysar Child Product Safety Notification Act with Rep. Jan Schakowsky of Illinois, a Democrat.
Their bipartisan bill was named after a 17-month-old who died when the portable crib in which he was sleeping collapsed.
The sad fact was the crib had been recalled five years earlier.
The bill focuses on child safety and includes reducing lead standards and tracking labels on toys, should a recall be issued. Also a third party will do testing for lead.
Now, items which infants and toddlers use, such as high chairs, cribs and strollers, will come with a registration card, so parents can be immediately notified should a recall be issued.
Upton said that the House received the message of concern about their child's toys and products. We agree this is an important step toward saving lives.
Parents also need to realize the importance of filling out these registration cards for their child's safety. If they can't be contacted, the recall may go unnoticed.
Manufacturers also are now required to maintain a record of registered consumer contact information and the Consumer Product Safety Commission is to permanently place the manufacturer name, contact information, model name and number, and the date of manufacture on each durable infant or toddler product.
If everyone does their part, maybe tragedies like the Keysar baby may be avoided.