In recent years, several new child product safety laws have been enacted, including the federal Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act and the state Children's Product Safety and Recall Effectiveness Act of 2008. While these new laws significantly raised child product safety standards and improved the nation's product recall system, there have been recent reports of hazardous products, such as children's clothing with unsafe drawstrings, remaining on store shelves.

This hearing will examine the effectiveness of the Children's Product Safety and Recall Effectiveness Act of 2008 and how the State can further protect children from hazardous products. A number of bills have been introduced in the Committees on Consumer Affairs and Protection and Children and Families seeking to regulate the sale of certain products that may pose a hazard to children (A.64, A.5711, and A.8402), as well as legislation that would require child day care programs and certain residential foster care programs to discontinue the use of hazardous products in such facilities has also been introduced (A.6363 and A.7627).

Please see the reverse side for a list of questions in response to which witnesses may direct their testimony, and for a description of the bills which will be discussed at the hearing.

Persons wishing to present pertinent testimony to the Committees at the above hearing should complete and return the enclosed reply form as soon as possible. It is important that the reply form be fully completed and returned so that persons may be notified in the event of emergency postponement or cancellation.

Oral testimony will be limited to five minutes' duration. In preparing the order of witnesses, the Committees will attempt to accommodate individual requests to speak at particular times in view of special circumstances. These requests should be made on the attached reply form or communicated to Committee staff as early as possible.

Ten copies of any prepared testimony should be submitted at the hearing registration desk. The Committees would appreciate advance receipt of prepared statements.

In order to further publicize these hearings, please inform interested parties and organizations of the Committees' interest in hearing testimony from all sources.

In order to meet the needs of those who may have a disability, the Assembly, in accordance with its policy of non-discrimination on the basis of disability, as well as the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), has made its facilities and services available to all individuals with disabilities. For individuals with disabilities, accommodations will be provided, upon reasonable request, to afford such individuals access and admission to Assembly facilities and activities.

1. What improvements, if any, could be made to the Children's Product Safety and Recall Effectiveness Act of 2008 to strengthen the Act?

2. Has the ability of the Division of Consumer Protection to administer and enforce the Children's Product Safety and Recall Effectiveness Act of 2008 been affected by the merger of the Division (formerly the Consumer Protection Board) into the Department of State pursuant to the enacted SFY 2011-12 Budget?

3. To what extent are recalled products being sold at second-hand or thrift stores? What actions should the State take to ensure that recalled products are not sold at such stores?

4. Should New York State prohibit the sale and distribution of novelty lighters, as proposed in Assembly bill 8402? How has the marketplace changed in the European Union and states, such as Maine, Tennessee, and Massachusetts, that have enacted legislation banning these products?

5. Should New York State require manufacturers of certain household consumer products to attach a warning to the products alerting consumers to the danger of tipping and the existence of stabilization products to prevent tipping, as proposed in Assembly bill 64?

6. What improvements, if any, should be made to section 396-k of the General Business Law, which prohibits the sale of hazardous toys? Should the law be amended to include toys that are coated with paints containing levels of lead that exceed federal standards, as proposed in Assembly bill 5711?

7. What actions have other states taken in recent years to protect children from hazardous products?

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Persons wishing to present testimony at the public hearing on Child Product Safety are requested to complete this reply form as soon as possible and mail, email or fax it to:

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