'Uniquely Difficult': Tony Cárdenas Laments Lack Of Safety Info For Non-English Speaking Communities

4 months ago

During a House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing prior to the Congressional recess, Rep. Tony Cárdenas (D-CA) questioned witnesses about the Safe Sleep for Babies Act, and other consumer protection efforts.

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Transcript

00:00Thank you very much Chair Bilirakis and also Ranking Member Schakowsky for

00:04holding this hearing today and I appreciate the opportunity to wave on

00:08to the committee. I also want to thank the commissioners for being here today

00:12and I'm looking forward to discussing the work you've done and continue to do

00:16on behalf of our 340 million plus American constituents. Last Congress we

00:23passed my bill the Safe Sleep for Babies Act which makes it unlawful for

00:27manufacturers to sell or distribute crib bumpers or inclined sleepers for

00:32infants. The law bans both crib bumpers, a category of products responsible for

00:37at least 107 infant deaths between 1990 and 2016 alone, and inclined infant

00:43sleepers like the recalled Fisher-Price Rock and Play which was linked to over a

00:48hundred infant deaths. Manufacturers of some infant products have known from the

00:52start that their products were risky and violated safe sleep advice and I

00:57commend the CPSC and staff for working quickly to address these dangers through

01:02the enforcement of the Infant Sleep Products Act rule. The passage of the

01:07Safe Sleep for Babies Act helped move the needle in creating a safe landscape

01:12for infant product safety but therefore it's always more there's always more

01:18work to do. Chair Honsarik, what have been the

01:24successes and challenges the Commission has encountered as it has worked to

01:28implement the Safe Sleep for Babies Act? Thank you Mr. Cardenas. As I said, Safe

01:33Sleep for Babies Act is a tremendously important piece of legislation that

01:36addressed hazards associated with infant sleep. It had both inclined sleepers as

01:42well as crib bumpers. We've been active in the enforcement side of things and

01:47making sure that those types of products are off the market. That is some of the

01:52challenges that we've been seeing. A recent month we were doing

01:56investigations and took down around 2,000 crib bumpers that were still being

02:01sold. So it's making sure that people are getting smart as well. They're calling

02:06them something slightly different but look at the pictures and you know

02:09exactly what they're for. So it's going on especially on the online world to

02:13make sure that we're able to stop those things from from happening. Thank you.

02:19Chairman, what effect would the Republican majority's proposed

02:236% budget cut have on your ability to protect families and consumers from

02:28harmful sleep products for infants? I think it would impact both what's our

02:33imports and ability to stop things at imports but also we have an e-commerce

02:37team that last year viewed about 3 million products online and did a

02:43takedown request of nearly 60,000. All those jobs are at risk to be able

02:50to make sure that we have people there to do that to be able to monitor

02:54especially since the manufacturers often are overseas and selling

02:59directly to our consumers. So a 6% budget cut would actually make it

03:04harder for you to protect infants like you've been trying to do so far.

03:08Absolutely. Okay, thank you. I look forward to continuing to work with you

03:13to give families peace of mind in knowing that when their infant goes

03:16asleep the only thing parents must worry about is their baby waking up before

03:21they do before they start their day. Also Chairman, you mentioned in your

03:26testimony that outreach is a challenge not only with infant sleep products but

03:31other products as well. Distributing good information on product safety to

03:35non-english-speaking communities can often be uniquely difficult as well. So

03:40Chairman, what hurdles have you encountered in efforts to increase

03:43public safety outreach particularly outreach in languages other than English?

03:49One of the things the agency has been able to do with the ARPA funds that have

03:53been provided is to translate our recalls into Spanish. Commissioner Boyle has been a

03:58huge proponent of that and as that money goes away and our budget shrinks

04:03you have that as being put at risk. In addition we've done a lot of

04:08community building to be able to find voices who are trusted because

04:13oftentimes unfortunately we might need to be a trusted voice. We're not well

04:19known and sometimes the government is not always trusted and so we want to

04:26build those relationships and find those voices out there. That also takes

04:30time, that takes resources to be able to build that awareness. Once again cuts

04:35will just make it harder. Last year the American Academy of Pediatrics put out a

04:40letter to your Commission expressing concern over many baby products that

04:44puts children's lives in danger. Can you update us on what the CPSC is doing as

04:49it relates to weighted infant sleep products and are there other products

04:54that Congress should be looking at to make it safer for children to to survive

04:59while sleeping? So we don't do pre-market approval so unfortunately we often

05:05follow to see whether there are deaths and injuries associated with products.

05:09The pediatrician has raised concerns about weighted products so did CDC and

05:14so did NIH. We have based off of their information given updates to consumers

05:22about guidance on weighted sleep sacks and we are engaged in the voluntary

05:28standards side as well to be able to see if there's ways to improve the safety of

05:32these products but obviously they're out there and they're still being used. Thank

05:37you so much. My time having expired Mr. Chairman I yield back. Thank you, thank

05:40you very much. I appreciate this concludes the questioning for today. I

05:44appreciate everyone. Thank you to the panel for your your answers and of course

05:50your testimony as well.

'Uniquely Difficult': Tony Cárdenas Laments Lack Of Safety Info For Non-English Speaking Communities

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