CPSC Chairman Ann Brown Unveils Product Safety Initiative "Top Ten List" of Safety Principles Aimed at Reducing Number of Recalls

NEWS from CPSC

U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission

Office of Information and Public Affairs Washington, DC 20207
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 5, 2000
Release # 01-003
CPSC Consumer Hotline: (800) 638-2772
CPSC Media Contact:Ken Giles, (301) 504-7052

CPSC Chairman Ann Brown Unveils Product Safety Initiative
"Top Ten List" of Safety Principles Aimed at Reducing Number of Recalls

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission Chairman Ann Brown today unveiled a new initiative to make products safer and reduce the number of products recalled each year.

In New Orleans, La., speaking to the Defense Research Institute, a national organization of product liability attorneys, Brown challenged industry to implement a "Top Ten List" of safety principles aimed at reducing product defects that lead to recalls.

Brown announced that 32 major companies have agreed to implement the principles, name a senior product safety official to oversee implementation, and agree to share and publicize product safety innovations. These companies are joining with the CPSC in a "Product Safety Circle" to promote safety.

"We're laying out a plan for companies to put safety in before they have to take a defect out," Brown said. "There are too many safety recalls. Often we find that the safety defect could have been anticipated and prevented. The CPSC cannot certify the safety of products before they go out on the market, but many companies are taking steps to engineer their products with safety in mind from the outset. We want to highlight those examples and encourage all companies to follow them."

The CPSC's job is to vigilantly enforce consumer product safety laws. However, it can also encourage good corporate citizenship in the safety arena by recognizing where companies are doing a good job and challenging others to follow that leadership.

"In many cases, the first time a company deals with the government is when there's a safety problem," Brown said. "This is a way to help companies improve safety on their own without government regulation. We hope companies will find ways to make products safer before they reach the marketplace or peoples' homes."

Over the years, CPSC has identified safety practices that tend to result in the manufacture and sale of safer products. Companies wanting to do the right thing often ask: "What should we do?" This initiative is a way to answer that question.

The top ten corporate product safety principles are:

  1. Build safety into product design.
  2. Do product safety testing for all foreseeable hazards.
  3. Keep informed about and implement latest developments in product safety.
  4. Educate consumers about product safety.
  5. Track and address your products' safety performance.
  6. Fully investigate product safety incidents.
  7. Report product safety defects promptly.
  8. If a defect occurs, promptly offer a comprehensive recall plan.
  9. Work with CPSC to make sure your recall is effective.
  10. Learn from mistakes - yours and others'.
"These are straight-forward principles," said Brown. "Unfortunately, we often see product safety problems that might have been avoided had such principles been followed."

These Top Ten principles can be used as a tool for top level corporate officials to give direction to their employees responsible for safety. They can also provide impetus to middle management and employees throughout the company to suggest creative safety improvements for their company.

"The CPSC has a track record of working successfully with individual companies or groups of companies to prevent safety problems before they arise," said Brown. "To achieve gains for the public, we have used persuasion, public recognition of voluntary advances in consumer safety, and partnership with those who are willing to work with us cooperatively. We want to build on these efforts to make products safer." Brown said the CPSC will stay vigilant to recall dangerous products, but consumers need to do their part by taking advantage of recalls and getting dangerous products out of their homes, and industry must do better by building safety into their products.

Brown emphasized that the Product Safety Circle initiative is not an endorsement of any product and CPSC, as always, will continue to monitor the safety performance of the companies in the marketplace. CPSC reserves the right to remove a company from the circle if it is broadly disregarding the pledge or failing to operate in the spirit of the initiative.

The Commission voted (2-1) (with Chairman Ann Brown and Commissioner Thomas Moore in the majority; Commissioner Mary Sheila Gall in the minority) to approve the Product Safety Circle initiative. Commissioner Gall's statement is below, and also is available through CPSC's Office of the Secretary at (301) 504-7923.

STATEMENT OF THE HONORABLE MARY SHEILA GALL
IN OPPOSITION TO PRODUCT SAFETY CIRCLE INITIATIVE

September 15, 2000

Today I voted against the "Product Safety Circle Initiative" for three reasons. The first reason is that failure to adhere to the practices cited in the Product Safety Circle might result eventually in public criticism, in spite of the lack of any legal requirement to comply. I know that such a result is not the intent of the initiators of this idea, but my experience in the Commission has been that practices that start out as aspirations end up as requirements.

The second reason why I do not favor the Product Safety Circle is that its underlying concept appears to be that the Commission can identify certain management characteristics of companies that lead to the reliable production and distribution of safe consumer products. I doubt that this concept is true. The Commission is at its best when it functions as a "cop on the beat," identifying potentially hazardous products and spurring recalls.

The Commission and its staff, on the other hand, are not at their best when they are called upon to understand the operations of an industry. (This lack of understanding was painfully apparent when the Commission undertook regulatory changes for children's sleepwear.) In other words, the Commission has no particularly good idea of how businesses organize and manage themselves to consistently produce safe products while meeting all of the other regulatory and business requirements that companies must meet to be successful.

The ten corporate product safety practices cited in the memo reflect the lack of understanding. While each one is commendable and worthwhile in itself, there is no exposition about how each one should be integrated into a coherent whole. The ten practices each cite different companies as examples; nowhere is a company cited that has effectively integrated all of the aspects of consumer product safety into its operations, while remaining financially viable and meeting other regulatory and legal requirements.

The third reason that I oppose the Product Safety circles is that it is inappropriate for a regulatory agency to create an "elite" group of companies whose compliance with laws and regulations is truly extraordinary, compared to companies that "merely" comply. It is appropriate for an agency whose mission it is to promote business (such as the Department of Commerce) to confer awards and recognize extraordinary achievement. But the public has a right to expect a more even-handed approach from a regulator to the members of the community that it regulates.