Fed up with the government's apparent struggles to protect public health after two years of well-publicized recalls, some consumers are taking the role of regulator into their own hands. Citizens are funding or themselves administrating checks on toys and other household products with X-ray guns that detect toxic chemicals.
An article in The Washington Post noted that blogger Joselyn Saiki and seven friends near Mountain View, California hired lawyer Jennifer Taggart, also the creator of the TheSmartMama.com blog, in 2008 to test their household goods and toys with the gun. Ms. Taggart received $250 per family for fees and travel costs. She came back in 2009 to visit six other households wanting inspections.
"We scheduled 2-1/2 hours per family," said Ms. Saiki, who wound up throwing out 12 items, including ceramic plates used regularly for meals. "But you start to wonder about everything and you're thinking 'This is my kid, I'll pay for another half hour.' And you're pulling things out of the closet. Before you know it, she's leaving. Then the next birthday, or next holiday comes, and you're wondering about all these new toys."
The emergence of "citizen regulators," according to the Post article, is being fueled by the X-Ray Flourecence (XRF) Analyzer, a hand-held device for do-it-yourself testing. Prices range from $17,000 to $35,000, but nonprofit groups have been buying the guns and holding free toy testing clinics at libraries, town halls and fire stations around the country. Families can rent them for $400 a day.
A request by the consumer product website, zrecommends.com, in November led the Center for Environmental Health, a nonprofit environmental group in California, to test an item of infant apparel sold by Target. Finding lead at four times the legal limit led to a widespread recall.
But in a well-publicized case, goodguide.com used an XRF gun in finding that Zhu Zhu Pets, one of this year's hottest holiday sellers, contained excess levels of antimony, a heavy metal. The Consumer Product Safety Commission found the item was tested incorrectly and in compliance.
Dara O'Rourke, the founder of goodguide, which has rated about 63,000 consumer products based on toxic chemicals, said his group should have used the federal test. But he also said many consumers have become obsessed over safety.
"Four or five years ago, it was just me and a couple of geeks," Ms. O'Rourke said. "But there's been this transition in the marketplace. It went from the Whole Foods crowd being concerned about this to the Safeway crowd and now the Wal-Mart crowd."
Stacy M. Leistner, a spokesman for the Toy Industry Association, told the Post the screening guns in many cases were "needlessly alarming parents." The technology, she said, "has a place, but it has to be used judiciously."
Discussion Questions: What do you think about consumers inspecting the safety of products on their own? Is that good or bad for brands and public safety? What repercussions may develop from any increases in such testing?