CPSIA and toys – Overlawyered

Toy roundup: grain as Grand Guignol, and legal blocks

Walter Olson — Tue, 24 Nov 2015 10:52:44 +0000

Those “most dangerous” toys lists are an easy way for news editors to fill space before the holidays, but could a note of strain be creeping in? One of the ten on this year’s list from Massachusetts-based W.A.T.C.H. (World Against Toys Causing Harm) is a recreational art dough that contains wheat (and warns of that fact for allergy sufferers). [AP]

In other toy news, meanwhile, “Everything is awesome for the lawyers; Civil litigation-themed Lego is a thing” [Legal Cheek on parody “Lawgo” via Camie Pickett]

Tags: allergies, Christmas and other holidays, CPSIA and toys

Toy roundup: grain as Grand Guignol, and legal blocks is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Environment roundup

Walter Olson — Thu, 27 Aug 2015 14:25:08 +0000

Safe Drinking Water Act along with other federal laws helped scare consumers away from public fountains and tap water, with unintended bad consequences for health and the environment [Kendra Pierre-Louis, Washington Post]
Austin, Tex. ban on plastic bags isn’t working out as intended [Adam Minter, Bloomberg View]
After BP’s $18.7 billion settlement with five Gulf states, here come huge private lawyer paydays [Louisiana Record]
Energy efficiency in durable goods: mandates “based on weak or nonexistent evidence of consumer irrationality” with government itself hardly free of behavioral biases [Tyler Cowen]
“How Trophy Hunting Can Save Lions” [Terry Anderson and Shawn Regan, PERC/WSJ]
CPSC’s hard line on CPSIA testing of natural materials in toys based on “precautionary principle run amuck” [Nancy Nord]
Is the ideal of sustainability one we ultimately owe to hunter-gatherers? [Arnold Kling]

Tags: BP Transocean oil spill, CPSC, CPSIA, CPSIA and toys, endangered species, environment

Environment roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

September 16 roundup

Walter Olson — Tue, 16 Sep 2014 04:05:04 +0000

“When I asked them why they decided to sell their [toy import] business, they said that they got out because of Proposition 65 and the CPSIA.” [Nancy Nord]
State tax regimes are getting more aggressive about grabbing money earned in other states [Steve Malanga, City Journal]
“Still can’t get over the fact that all [development] permits are discretionary in San Francisco” [@TonyBiasotti linking Mark Hogan, Boom]
How would American politics change if political parties could expel members, as in many countries they can? [Bryan Caplan]
Defenders of Wisconsin John Doe prosecutor push back against Stuart Taylor investigation [Daniel Bice, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel via Althouse, more, related on “blue fist” posters and John Doe investigator, earlier]
“In Britain, Child’s Weight Leads to Parents’ Arrest” [New York Times in June, King’s Lynn 11-year-old; also, Cadbury agrees to “stop making chocolate bars in Britain with more than 250 calories”] More: Pencil-twirling in class leads to CPS referral in New Jersey [Katherine Mangu-War, Reason]
Should there be judicial remedies — what kind, and for which plaintiffs — when federal spending is politicized? [Daniel Epstein, Federalist Society “Engage”]

Tags: Child Protective Services, CPSIA and toys, obesity, Prop 65, San Francisco, taxes, United Kingdom, Wisconsin

September 16 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Dear lawmakers: please fix CPSIA

Walter Olson — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 22:02:30 +0000

Jill Chuckas of the Handmade Toy Alliance testifies before the Senate about the Law That Stole Christmas.

Tags: CPSIA, CPSIA and Congress, CPSIA and toys

Dear lawmakers: please fix CPSIA is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

“The law that stole Christmas”

Walter Olson — Sat, 06 Nov 2010 11:44:12 +0000

A nonprofit in suburban Chicago each year encourages its woodworker members “to craft and donate wooden Christmas toys to less fortunate children.” After donating upwards of 700 toys a year in the past, it will have to discontinue the program in future since it can’t afford the third-party testing required under the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act, sponsored by area members of Congress Bobby Rush and Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.). “Woodworking hobby magazines have pegged prices for third-party testing as high as $30,000 for 80 items.” Testing is particularly impractical for items made from donated/recycled wood, since each donated wood source needs to be put through separate testing. Another triumph for CPSIA! [Jenette Sturges, Sun-Times/Beacon-News]

PUBLIC DOMAIN IMAGE from John Bate’s 1635 book, The Mysteryes of Nature and Art, Wikimedia Commons.

Tags: CPSIA, CPSIA and Congress, CPSIA and toys, Illinois, volunteers

“The law that stole Christmas” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

CPSIA, uncompliable

Walter Olson — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 05:03:48 +0000

Katherine Mangu-Ward at Reason “Hit and Run” provides two snapshots of the continuing damage being done by the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008, including the rage-and-despair reaction of Rick Woldenberg (AmendTheCPSIA.com), who says that the new regulations “will jack up Learning Resources’ annual compliance costs to $15 million, FAR in excess of our profits. We have no Plan B — so we are trying to get a new government.” And a commenter points to the “Criticism” and (very partial) “List of Companies Whose Closure Is Linked To CPSIA” sections of the Wikipedia entry.

Related: “Not available because of the CPSIA“: wood-and-beeswax Selecta Spielzeug Rhonda dollhouse dining room, formerly imported from Germany. Why pay a whopping testing bill to clear an innocuous product that’s at best going to sell modestly on this side of the Atlantic? [EuroToyShop.com]

Tags: CPSIA, CPSIA and toys

CPSIA, uncompliable is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

CPSIA: Russian nesting dolls, paper clips, science kits

Walter Olson — Sat, 02 Oct 2010 05:29:28 +0000

The website of the Golden Cockerel import firm includes a rather elaborate warning as to why its matryoshka are not meant for the under-12 set, at least not since the enactment of the calamitous Jan-Schakowsky–backed law:

the law requires each batch of toys be tested by a 3rd party laboratory to be sure they are “toy safe.” Such tests can cost well over $1000 per nesting doll set! And sometimes, as with our museum quality one-of-a-kind dolls, a “batch” consists entirely of one doll, or only a few, making it totally unfeasible to test.

CPSIA: reserving treasured toys for strictly adult use since 2008.

More: The CPSC has just sided with purported consumer groups and against pleas from the business community in adopting a broad definition of what constitute “children’s products” under the disastrous Barbara-Boxer–backed law: for example, ordinary paper clips must go through costly separate CPSIA testing when meant for kids’ use as part of a science kit with magnets and similar items [NY Times, AP/WaPo (“Kids’ science kits may take hit from safety ruling”), Commissioners Anne Northup and Nancy Nord]

Tags: Barbara Boxer, CPSC, CPSIA, CPSIA and toys, Henry Waxman, Jan Schakowsky, schools, science and scientists

CPSIA: Russian nesting dolls, paper clips, science kits is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

September 13 roundup

Walter Olson — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 13:31:51 +0000

“Court Vacates $99,000 Fee to Counsel for Plaintiff Who Won $650” [NJLJ]
Libel-suit target: “Author Simon Singh Puts Up a Fight in the War on Science” [Wired]
No, they weren’t “worst”: RIP injury lawyer who hyped “10 Worst Toys” list each Christmas [WSJ Law Blog]
New credit card regulations squeeze small business [John Berlau letter in Washington Post]
District attorney’s case intake desk should screen out many unjust prosecutions, but often doesn’t [Greenfield]
AGs’ campaign to drive sex pros off Craigslist has failure built in [William Saletan, Slate; LNL; Declan McCullagh]
“Nursing Home Company Settles $677 Million Lawsuit for $50 Million” [AP]
“Judge accused of sexual harassment once helped women sue” [Orlando Sentinel]

Tags: attorneys' fees, CPSIA and toys, Craigslist, harassment law, nursing homes, prosecution, United Kingdom

September 13 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Buckyballs and the vulnerable 13-year-old

Walter Olson — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 15:13:46 +0000

Woot.com has a daily offering today (may disappear tomorrow) discussing the CPSC policy on swallowable magnets in tones of less than complete respect.

Plus: How dangerous exactly is this loose-magnet toy that CPSC saw fit to recall? [Amend The CPSIA]

Tags: Buckyballs, CPSC, CPSIA and toys

Buckyballs and the vulnerable 13-year-old is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

USA Today on CPSIA casualties

Walter Olson — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 12:24:01 +0000

The newspaper profiles Randy Hertzler of Lancaster, Pa., whose small family-owned business imports European-made specialty toys and is reeling under the costs of the 2008 enactment. [via CPSC Commissioner Anne Northup]

Tags: CPSIA, CPSIA and toys

USA Today on CPSIA casualties is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system