Nancy Nord, Acting Chairman
U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission
4330 East West Highway
Bethesda, MD 20814
Dear Ms. Nord:
I am sure you are well aware that San Francisco is implementing a ban on products for babies that contain certain chemicals suspected of being harmful and possibly carcinogenic. After becoming a new parent two years ago I began to notice numerous articles on the topic of infant exposure to phthalates and bisphenol A.
Therefore I was disappointed, though not terribly surprised, to read in a recent news report that your agency has “not limited the chemicals in baby products for years” and that you “have no plans to impose new restrictions.” The same article quotes University of Massachusetts Lowell environmental health professor Joel Tinker, who claims that the potential cost for companies to make safe products is taken into account when regulating chemicals in products. I find this to be disgraceful. If making a product safe is prohibitively expensive for manufacturer, then the manufacturer should be prohibited from making the product.
The chemical companies and toy manufacturers must have some fantastic lobbyists. I can see no good reason why government agencies should turn a blind eye to potential hazards that are going straight into babies’ mouths.
Truly,
Liz Mann
