CSPC Celebrates 40th Anniversary of CPSA

CPSC October 27 marked the 40th anniversary of the Consumer Product Safety Act (CPSA) with a proclamation celebrating its career staffers, calling them “the folks who make it run.” The document, supported by the three sitting commissioners, asserted (www.cpsc.gov/pr/happy40cpsc.pdf):

“Commissioners come and go, serving limited appointments and changing seats with political ebbs and flows. The foundation of the agency is its career staff. They are the people on the front lines, testing products, talking with manufacturers, listening to doctors and teachers and parents. They are professionals across a wide range of disciplines, and each is integral to the formulation, implementation, and enforcement of CPSC policy, enabling Commissioners to turn their ideas into the real protections that keep consumers safe from unreasonable risks.

 

“Because of CPSC staff’s hard work over the last 40 years, the agency has been able to make products consumers use at work, play, and everything in between safer. As a result, American families have been spared thousands of deaths and millions of injuries and illnesses from poisoning, electrocutions, fires, and other hazards. Millions more American children have had and will have the ability to grow into healthy adults because of the work of a relatively small group who are public servants in the truest sense of the term.”

When then-President Richard Nixon signed the CPSA, PSL noted (10/30/72, p. 1) that the law enjoyed widespread support from industry, writing, “Business groups recommending signature included the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Toy Manufacturers of America, Assn. of Home Appliances Manufacturers, National Electrical Manufacturers Assn., American Retail Federation, and the National Assn. of Food chain.” PSL also reported that likely candidates for first chairman included Richard Simpson who then was acting assistant secretary of commerce for science & technology. Nixon did nominate Simpson for that job, and he did become chairman, serving until June 1976.

The commission began its official public activity in May 1973 when four members – Simpson, Barbara Franklin, Lawrence Kushner and Constance Newman – held the first commission meeting. The fifth original commissioner, David Pittle, joined the panel in October 1973. On that first session, PSL wrote (5/21/12, p. 1), “The commissioners’ plans to dig deeply into questions presented to them were indicated by their frequent requests for back-up data on the single page summaries prepared by CPSC staffers for each topic discussed at the meeting. Many of the inquiries focused on the economic impact of potential actions and market data about the products involved.