| For Immediate Release | December 17, 2009 |
U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission Chairman Inez Tenenbaum met with President Barack Obama today at the White House to have a robust discussion regarding recent agency accomplishments and major issues that CPSC will address in 2010. The Chairman shared with the President that she has travelled to Asia twice during the first six months of her tenure and will be headed back to China in January, to continue her dialogue with government officials and manufacturers about “building safety into products” and using best manufacturing practices for products intended for U.S. consumers. The Chairman informed the President that educating manufacturers in foreign countries about new U.S. safety rules for children’s products is priority issue for her.
Chairman Tenenbaum also spoke with the President about the progress being made to address the problem drywall issue, the efforts underway to build a searchable consumer incident database (Saferproducts.gov), the efforts staff is making to complete rulemaking required under the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act, CPSC’s launch of a new social media platform (CPSC 2.0), and the increases the agency has experienced in its budget and staffing.
“The President stated that the most important issue for CPSC is to give consumers confidence in the safety of the products they purchase,” said Chairman Tenenbaum. “By implementing new child safety laws that lower lead limits, make toy and juvenile product standards mandatory, and ensure that children’s products are independently tested, we are working hard to give parents and consumers greater assurances that children’s products will be safer than ever before.”