Once again, the President wants to put a person with clear industry allegiances in charge of a government body intended to safeguard the public interest. On March 1, 2007, President Bush nominated Michael Baroody as chairman of the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC).

Why should you be concerned? For one, because Baroody is a senior executive with the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), a trade group that regularly opposes product safety regulation and pollution prevention laws. NAM has gone so far as to call for weakening the CPSC, an organization that exists to keep manufacturers from selling products that put us and our families at risk. And now President Bush wants to put Baroody in charge of the very organization Baroody wants to weaken. Once again, Bush is asking us to allow a fox to guard the henhouse.

Given the recent Associated Press expose of CPSC’s cover-up on risks to children from vinyl lunchboxes, Baroody’s appointment is even more worrisome.

During his tenure at NAM, Baroody has led opposition to laws that protect children and the public from unsafe products and toxic health threats, including:

1·       In 2000, when manufacturers covered up their knowledge of tire problems that led to the deaths or injuries of over 500 people in car accidents, NAM opposed legislation requiring manufacturers to provide the government with accident data-data that they had previously withheld.
2·       In 2001, Baroody decried a Supreme Court ruling supporting EPA’s authority to regulate toxic air emissions-a ruling to uphold laws that save tens of thousands of lives and billions of dollars in health costs by reducing air pollution.
3.       Baroody later welcomed new Bush Administration rules that relaxed pollution prevention laws for power plants.
4·       In 2003, NAM teamed up with the asbestos industry to lobby Congress in opposition to proposed regulations on asbestos exposure.
5·       NAM is a leader in the polluter-backed junk science campaign to deny global warming; their official position states that science has “not confirmed evidence of global warming that can be attributed to human activities.”

The Center for Environmental Health http://www.cehca.org/  and Generation Green are urging Senators to reject Baroody’s nomination because of the risks it poses to CPSC’s effectiveness and to our public health. This is yet another move by the White House to fill our government agencies and advisory bodies with industry cronies rather than legitimate experts who have the capacity and the political will to protect our families and the public interest.

The CPSC desperately needs a Chair who can turn the struggling agency around by actually working to protect consumer safety and children’s health.

“With the recent failures at CPSC, it is especially alarming that President Bush has appointed an industry crony for the nation’s top consumer protection post,” says Michael Green, Executive Director of the Center for Environmental Health http://www.cehca.org/ , Generation Green’s parent organization. “The President had a chance to appoint a real champion of public health, but instead he has picked a friend of polluters and an enemy of children’s health.”

Consumer groups have also called on the Senate to scrutinize Baroody’s appointment. Consumers Union, the nonprofit publisher of Consumer Reports magazine has stated that “When it comes to safety regulation, NAM has traditionally pushed for a hands-off approach.”

Please take a moment to let your senators know that you disapprove of this appointment. A sample letter appears below. Feel free to alter or expand upon the letter if you’d like. For more information on this issue (including coverage about the vinyl lunchbox cover-up) and the importance of CPSC, click here http://www.generationgreen.org/actionalertinfo/cpsc-vinyl.htm or visit www.generationgreen.org/actionalertinfo/cpsc-vinyl.htm.

NOTE: If you have authorized Generation Green to send a letter on your behalf, please contact us by April 2nd, 2007  if you DO NOT want us to send the letter to your senator urging the rejection of Michael Baroody’s nomination to CPSC.

SAMPLE LETTER TO YOUR SENATORS

Send to: Your Senators

To find out who your senators are and how to contact them, click here or visit http://www.senate.gov/senators/senator_by_state.cfm.

 Dear Senator ________________:

As a constituent, I urge you to oppose President Bush’s nomination of Michael Baroody as chairman of the Consumer Product Safety Commission. I am deeply disturbed by this choice for the CPSC’s top seat, as Baroody is currently head of the National Association of Manufacturers, a trade group that has long opposed product safety regulation and pollution prevention laws.

During his tenure at NAM, Baroody has led opposition to laws that protect children and the public from unsafe products and toxic health threats, including:

1·       In 2000, when manufacturers covered up their knowledge of tire problems that led to the deaths or injuries of over 500 people in car accidents, NAM opposed legislation requiring manufacturers to provide the government with accident data.
2·       In 2001, Baroody decried a Supreme Court ruling supporting EPA’s authority to regulate toxic air emissions — a ruling to uphold laws that save tens of thousands of lives and billions of dollars in health costs by reducing air pollution.
3·       In 2003, NAM opposed protections from asbestos exposure and teamed up with the asbestos industry to lobby Congress in opposition to proposed regulations.
4·       NAM is a leader in the polluter-backed junk science campaign to deny global warming.

Various consumer groups have called Baroody to task for advocating the weakening of the CPSC, and so do I. This nomination comes on the heels of revelations that the CPSC failed to protect children from lead poisoning threats posed by vinyl lunchboxes and continues to do so despite FDA regulations. This unnecessary lead risk to children could have been avoided if CPSC had not manipulated and ignored its own test data.

The CPSC Chair must make our public health a priority and not shy away from its job of protecting consumer safety. Michael Baroody, a proven adversary of safety and health regulation with strong ties to the industry, is not the person to guide this troubled agency.

I urge you to please reject this dangerous nomination.

Sincerely, [Your Name, City, State, Zip]