Details about this story

• Source: Sacramento Bee
• Date: September 09, 2007
• URL: Read the story
• Bylines: Russell Carollo
• Topics: Federal Government , Safety
• Data Types: Federal Data
• Description/Excerpt: Using the CPSC's database of exports of non-approved products and hundreds of pages of documents obtained through the federal Freedom of Information Act, The Bee found that between October 1993 and September 2006, the CPSC received 1,031 requests from companies to export products the agency had found unsafe for American consumers. The CPSC approved 991 of those requests, or 96 percent. The CPSC database did not identify how many of the approved exports were products made outside the United States that simply were returned to their manufacturers and how many made here or elsewhere were actually exported for sale in other countries. The data also represent just a portion of all products violating CPSC standards exported from the United States to other countries. Under current law, companies have to seek CPSC approval when they export products that violate mandatory standards or bans. But only about 13 percent of CPSC standards are mandatory. The agency is under a congressional mandate to first pursue voluntary standards, which lack the force of law, and companies exporting products that violate voluntary standards are not required to notify CPSC before exporting. The largest number of requests to the CPSC to export banned goods came from California companies, which accounted for about one-third, or 338, of the total during the period reviewed by The Bee. The vast majority of the California requests came from the Los Angeles area.