European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - February 11, 1978, Darmstadt, Hesse                                The Case of the consumer product safety commission ment for a full seven year Bill an unexpired tworan Dahal of Robert a Loci the age of infancy was after he took 4 no longer can we claim i r As an excuse by to Thomas new York tymm Consumers end lawmakers who hailed the creation of the consumer product safety com Mission five years ago with predictions that it would usher in a new Era of safety Are now immersed languished second instead of a powerful consumer adv aay they got a confused bureaucracy hobbled by Industry poor administration and what John Calif has called Gross the consumer product safety act of which Cre ated the sought to prevent the deaths and 20 million injuries caused every year by unsafe prod a toll that a congressional study group had called excessive by any Standard of the act created an Agency with great instead of merely reacting to it could anticipate injuries and sweep dangerous products off the it could set product safety Standard and order manufacturers to meet ii could Tell the Public which products were Safe and which were in the Agency is almost univer Sally regarded As tardy and reluctant in ban Ning or recalling dangerous products and in setting Federal safely in Senate hearings 24 and the Agency will have to answer to one of its most persistent Wen Dell chairman of the consumer subcommittee of the Senate science and transportation the Agency plans to ask for a  of its funds in the face of a record that includes numerous episodes such As these it took two years Lor the commission to Issue a ban on the Asbestos Coaling applied to fireplace logs to make them which can float off the logs and into human is believed to be a cause of cancer Patching compounds containing Asbestos also have been but retailers will be allowed to sell them until next such sates Are a staff member so the Doest have to take it in the the commission was notified in october is75 that the might mite baby stroller could collapse and amp tale a baby although the manufacturer sought to recover the defective no National announcement was made until August almost a year after the first Only 14 percent of some Stathe were Vine commission was warned in 197s that 25feel Alu com Mission brought product safety complaints against five and four agreed intake to if which de Tea to should neen banned under another the earlier menu were and no ban he yet tee written of draft Flamma Hul Standard for ated the its been one of my the commissioner John who look office 19 months said in a recent interview that he took Over an Agency in which the Opportunity for being successful was lust about he said that he found a backlog of 180 products in Vari Ous stages of a huge pipeline with every thing crammed in and nothing coming he said he believes he has unclogged that pipeline and made Possi ble aggressive soon after the Agency wag those who hoped it would act As Well As those who were afraid it found hat the same legislation that created it could be interpreted la such a Way As to the first Richard a Republican businessman appointed to administer an Agency created by a democratic took the quite the legislation said that the chairman should control the Simpson interpreted he said in an inter to mean that the staff should not Lake orders from other fellow commissioners said Simpson had ordered the staff not to talk to them and that they often tried fruitlessly to find out what was going the Law also said that the commission should hold open and Simpson favored making even the Agen cys confidential Legal memoranda the critics was the Law said the commission must respond to citizen requests to set safety standards for products if an unreasonable risk of injury is in trying to follow this the Agency started to act no every petition concerning a product for which a risk was whether the product was aluminium which tarried he risk of or water Buffalo which carried the risk of an following this policy ate up Simpson once told a congressional committee that his Agency spent 75 per cent of its time reacting instead of in three years the commission managed to produce Only one finished set of swimming Pool under the four safety acts the set standards for items such As cribs and childrens sleepwear consumer product safety Artuto tevet passed safety standards for Only three products in years swimming Pool architectural gluing and l miserable a miserable said one of those who Ere Page m the stars and stripes bitten by the Bullet As an soon found that could not say the commission entangled in two controversial emotion netted and bullets that Almat death Mauer of although the Agency eventually refused to regulate it could not decide which of other consumer products to regulate so it the commission a list of 100 Islon rejected thirteen i established its the decision at Byington spent at least e adding five highly r the nations staff 200 earned at last month the civil service Byington and his top admin1 a career government had engaged in consultants and promotion of cases in which u said personnel 1 been his which i Cial set of Drew process for spending Apih Hies of products based on could not notwithstanding i has spent its even its r and staff Are so tiny that it everything it was created to Byington contends that or priorities have the ing alternative routes to various for getting High priority he started at the top of a list of t eluding invented Gas space i Lead in childrens sleep Extension cords and i Power Lawn mowers and explained in fashion i doing something1 about although the first three Sta took More than twice As Long a recent Standard for i lights was issued on sinners Are hopeful that it will or the Agency critics pinpoint trying to assess what still Allstr the consumer ten the commission has been i its two Nader said in i the reluctance to use the i Henry 1 House subcommittee that curve Raeese Ford said that original consumer product i interests of bulness and lad baby i May have been Loo great insiders tend to blame the Mission contending i erases or the proce Sii Are invited to develop safety Staat that often proceeds at a snails in addition to conducting i Congress also will be asked to t of two commissioners to vacant i near their two votes could i the balance of Power in the c we can expect something we should demand Somei