[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 71 (Friday, June 9, 2000)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E964-E965]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 RECOGNIZING THE CONSUMER PRODUCT SAFETY COMMISSION AND POSTAL SERVICE 
       EFFORTS IN PROMOTING CONSUMER AWARENESS OF UNSAFE PRODUCTS

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                          HON. CARRIE P. MEEK

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                          Friday, June 9, 2000

  Mrs. MEEK of Florida. Mr. Speaker, defective products can have 
devastating effects on American lives. One of the strongest safeguards 
we have in protecting the safety and health of our citizens is the 
Consumer Product Safety Commission. The CPSC is working with 
manufacturers and retailers to keep harmful or dangerous products off 
of store shelves and away from Americans.
  The U.S. Postal Service has made an innovative attempt at remedying 
this problem by giving defective products more exposure in its offices. 
Over 33,000 post offices nationwide are displaying posters containing 
color pictures of products recalled by the CPSC. Since almost 7 million 
people visit those post offices everyday to mail letters and ship 
packages, this should be highly effective in disseminating to consumers 
the names of those products that have been recalled by the CPSC.
  I would like to share with my colleagues an editorial that recently 
appeared in the Ft. Lauderdale Sun Sentinel regarding this issue. I 
applaud the CPSC and the Postal Service for their initiative in 
protecting the public.

                 [From the Sun-Sentinel, Apr. 24, 2000]

           Product Recalls--Posters in Post Offices Will Help

       The U.S. Postal Service, which for years has been helping 
     to get defective people off

[[Page E965]]

     the streets by displaying the FBI's ``most wanted'' list, now 
     wants to do the same with defective products.
       Posters containing color pictures of products recalled by 
     the Consumer Product Safety Commission are going up in 33,000 
     post offices nationwide. Every day, about 7 million people 
     will visit those post offices to mail letters and ship 
     packages. Now they'll be able to get potentially life-saving 
     information while they're there.
       ``We can get dangerous products off store shelves, but the 
     real challenge is to get them out of families' homes,'' 
     commission Chairwoman Ann Brown said.
       That's the crux of it. As more and more products are 
     recalled, a smaller and smaller percentage of them rate a 
     mention in news reports. For the rest, it's left to consumers 
     to determine whether products they own have been recalled. 
     That's a bad system, and as the Sun-Sentinel reported in its 
     product recall series last year, several proposals have been 
     put forth to fix it.
       Ralph Nader, for example, has suggested using computers to 
     notify consumers immediately if products they own have been 
     recalled. Others want to repeal or modify section 6b of the 
     Consumer Product Safety Act, which requires that recalls be 
     kept secret until the companies involved can review the 
     information, a process that can take years.
       Those are good ideas, but unless and until they are 
     implemented, displaying posters in post offices will help. 
     It's another way in which the post office can serve as ``the 
     one hand that binds this nation together,'' as one postal 
     official put it.
       And hey, if you see any wanted criminals on your way to 
     return a defective product, call the police and tell them you 
     want to report a defective person.

     

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