WATCH THAT EXTENSION CORD, BUB

Unsafe Products Reaching Retail Shelves, Consumer Report Says

Doesn't the Bush administration care about ANYTHING except tax cuts and playing at war?

The magazine faulted the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission for the continued sale of unsafe products both here and abroad. Citing a steep erosion in the agency's budget and staff, it said the agency was inadequately and inconsistently enforcing federal safety laws and policing store shelves.

The result, Consumer Reports concluded, is that consumers are buying many "potentially lethal products," including defective extension cords and electrical items that can overheat and burn; fake ground-fault circuit interrupter plugs that don't always trip when there is an electrical overload; toys that can choke, cut or poison young children; counterfeit batteries that leak acid, overheat or spark; and disposable lighters that leak fuel or explode. Many of these goods are fraudulently labeled, counterfeits to well-known and well-regarded brand-name items.

The magazine said that the CPSC's number of recalls, detained shipments and other enforcement actions were down 35 percent in 2003 from 2001.
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"The CPSC is all that stands between consumers and dangerous products in the marketplace," said R. David Pittle, Consumer Reports' senior vice president for technical policy and one of the original members of the CPSC when it was created in 1973.