Friday, December 28, 2007
Editorial: Moran's misplaced good intention
The intent of a Toy Safety Act is good, but Virginia should keep its nose out of what is federal business.
From the RoundTable blog
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Four days before Christmas, as Virginians scrambled to find toys safe enough to place under their trees, Del. Brian Moran announced the Virginia Toy Safety Act, a measure that aims to keep unsafe toys off store shelves statewide.
The Alexandria Democrat's proposal appears well-intended. Its unveiling certainly was well-timed.
But toy safety is a matter for the federal government, not Virginia's. Ensuring toy safety will require a significant overhaul of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, not fines imposed on merchants whose store shelves may be stocked with toys that somehow slipped through federal safety cracks.
The measure, according to a news release from Moran's office, would create a new civil penalty for stores that knowingly resell recalled toys.
But it would be tough to prove that a merchant knowingly left a lead-tainted Thomas the Tank Engine on a store shelf, having decided that profit reigned over safety.
Plus, consumers who purchase toys after a recall order has been issued do have legal recourse. A merchant who fails to comply with a recall order does so at the risk of consumers suing the store.
Imposing fines on Virginia retailers is unnecessary piling on. The proposal looks like a politically expedient move by a state legislator who has his eyes on a 2009 bid for governor.
Aside from imposing fines on merchants, the proposal would direct the state attorney general's office and Department of Health to remove recalled toys from shelves and develop state toy standards.
Sorry, but policing store shelves for recalled toys should remain out of state purview. Keeping dangerous and defective toys out of children's hands will require significant reform at the federal level, and that process already is in motion.
It is slow motion, but strengthening the Consumer Product Safety Commission with more funding and staffing is the way to ensure unsafe toys are out of consumers' reach. This fight is not Virginia's.
