Dear Georigia PIRG member,
Contrary to what some might say, our country needs consumer watchdogs now more than ever. Millions of toys were recalled last year for having lead paint, which has been banned in the United States for 20 years.
Before those recalls, it was dangerous pet food. Before that: spinach tainted with E. coli. It’s not easy to ensure the safety of a nation’s food supply and consumer products. We have hundreds of ports in the country and our food and consumer goods travel thousands of miles to arrive in our homes.
Worse, the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the body charged with product safety, has half the staff it had 20 years ago, and their job has undoubtedly gotten much harder now that globalization has made the marketplace an entirely different arena to police.
The FDA also has a pitifully small budget (though as you’ll read on page 1, our work helped give the FDA a lot more authority), even though drug-makers now market directly to consumers, creating more demand than ever.
That’s why we’re not only stepping up our vigilance when it comes to toy safety studies and exposés of dangerous drugs and other products. We’re also calling for wholesale reform, like the Consumer Product Safety Modernization Act and the FDA Amendment Act, which became law last September, thanks in part to our advocacy. We couldn’t undertake such important work if it wasn’t for you. Thanks for your support.
