contact with the airway or esophagus causes the battery to discharge electricity and its immediate and life-threatening emergency. i've seen children who suffered a life altering burns to their esophagus after ingesting a button battery that was undetected less than an hour. they strongly endorse the law and urged an expeditious enactment. another ingestion has or we expect to see comes from high-powered magnets as mentioned with two or more swallowed, the force allows them to find each other across different segments that leads to intestinal injury, rupture or death. during a three-week period in 2019 after the previous ban had been vacated, my institution had three kids admitted in a three-week period where surgeons removed a total of 36 tiny magnets from their intestines. i personally worked with a 5-year-old boy that swallowed

five of these magnets and narrowly averted as the magnets found each other across multiple and cut off the blood supply. the ap has endorsed those and we support the cps efforts to address the hazard to a recall through the due safety standard. in the season of giving it is crucial for parents and policymakers to be aware of other products that can pose hazards for children. the ap urges congress to protect children from products, and other sleep products that can lead to suffocation and other infant sleep related deaths. holiday parties with children running around the house highlight the risk of furniture to plovers passing this dirty act which we urge the committee to mark up in advance. in closing i want to note that a strong and fully functioning cpsc is critical to keep children safe over the holidays and through the year.

to ensure there is the funding personality and statutory authority is necessary to proactively address before they lead to significant injuries and fatalities and to effectively recall dangerous products. the ep is grateful for the product safety during the holiday season and we look forward to continuing to work with you so that families can safely celebrate the holidays and purchase products that are safe for their children. thank you and i look forward to your questions. >> thanks a lot, doctor hoffman. and now john lawrence. >> i just want to make sure you can hear me. i am the senior vice president of the regulatory affairs for the toy association. thank you for the opportunity to testify today on this important topic chairman blumenthal and ranking member blackburn. product safety is the top priority for the toy industry and the goal includes promoting

toy safety and safe play year-round. accordingly i also serve as the chairperson knows the stakeholder the toy association is a not-for-profit trade association with members including more than 950 businesses all involved in bringing safe toys to children. the toy association and its members have served as leaders in global toy safety efforts in the 1970s we helped create the first comprehensive toy safety standard that has been recognized as a gold standard and including government, medical and child development experts, engineers, toy safety testing labs and consumer representatives to keep pace

incorporating the latest intelligence on product safety and children's behavior and has led to the world in this regard. in fact in 2008, the u.s. congress passed the consumer product safety improvement act which among its other provisions had a mandatory consumer product safety rule that requires testing and certification in effect congress also endorsed the work of experts and its process for continual review. in all, there's over 100 of different safety standards and tests for safety required of all toys in this country and the standards have been used as a model for other jurisdictions. among the requirements are those used with magnets and batteries and children's toys. at the use of certain powerful rare earth magnets small parts

could be swallowed if not allowed in children's toys. despite this there remain concerns and confusion over adult magnetic products still available in the marketplace with small parts that do not comply with the toy standards. these are not children's toys and are not safe. batteries with small parts also pose a unique threat to children particularly those under three years of age. since the 1990s the toy safety standard has addressed batteries used in children's toys requiring a locking mechanism on the battery compartment to prevent access to the battery. these requirements apply to all toys intended for children under three years of age and batteries that have small parts such as coins and button cells is all toys. following the report of regarding battery ingestion, the subcommittee on the toy safety

visited the standards and found that it was providing effective protection preventing children from ingesting batteries unaware of the dangers they could pose if ingested. while it wasn't evident they were failing, there were cases of children and vesting investing batteriesthat may havd left where a child could access them. accordingly in 2016, requirements were added to the standard so the toys that use the batteries include labeling to alert the consumers to the danger.

to reduce the hazards that these products may pose we've also incorporated messaging as part of the consumer campaign on the importance of keeping children away from batteries and they are closely following the development of the technologies for the batteries themselves and offer enhanced protection in the future. to raise the concern over the increase in the counterfeit toys but all toys are required to comply with safety standards, counterfeits and also with intellectual property law may not comply with the range of standards towards the toys were subject putting unsuspecting

consumers, children and families at risk. any business selling toys in the u.s. must be held to the high safety standards. accordingly, the toy association supports both the informed consumers act to require more transparency and create new accountability to help reduce the presence of counterfeit and unsafe products online. as an industry we must recognize the trust the families place in us and in the safety of toys. we take that responsibility very seriously and pride ourselves on the effectiveness of the standard and in its process for revision seek to continually keep pace with innovation and new information. f963 serves as a model for other countries looking to protect the health and safety of their youngest citizens looking to emulate its protected standards. thank you for the opportunity to speak today and i look forward to addressing any questions you

may have. >> thank you so much. we are very appreciative that we have been joined by the chairman of the committee. senator cantwell, i'm going to turn to her for any statements or questions. >> thank you mr. chairman. i certainly want to thank you, senator blumenthal and senator blackburn for your leadership on this important time as we enter the holiday season, consumers are purchasing these gifts in record numbers, and we need to make sure it is of the utmost level of scrutiny. how the current system protects the consumers particularly children from unsafe products and we need to do better as the hearing already has pointed out from the witnesses. recalls are important, but they are not always adequate.

without more recall checks for the high-risk recalls so today i am sending a letter asking for the recall efficiency and making sure they take steps to improve the process asking for relevant information to show that we need to do a better job and of the importance of this work is underscored by the current estimates about emergency rooms treated 100,000k related injuries in 2020 and 2021 the products have been recalled due to high lead, children choking on small parts and others what

do you recommend to improve the ability would you support requiring the retailers or manufacturers of the goods to use information collected. how well do you think we are doing on that? >> certain companies have enacted that and reach out to customers because they have the need to do so. but typically, with recall effectiveness, we have low rates as adjusted and as a lack of accountability in the recall effectiveness. >> thank you, senator cantwell. if we don't get the message out, we can't be effective and i think we need to think about the

recall from the standpoint of the family of consumers that do everything we can to make it as friendly as possible. i think an example where we've had some success in child passenger safety there is with every car seat that is sold in opportunity to register so they can proactively reach out and i think that has a benefit although there are a lot of barriers to getting that completed. this also goes back to the need to have a fully staffed commission that can work to meet the needs of consumers. >> so getting disappointed so that we can have an active and aggressive commission. >> i am reminded i think the committee dealt with this issue once before that dealt with used cars in the process of notifying people on how to notify individuals when the cars were

defaulted and i think the committee did good work, so i'm asking the ranking member of the subcommittee chair if maybe you could look at that as a model. >> thank you very, very much. chair man cantwell, excellent point. we very much appreciate your leadership on this issue as you were involved in. and i want to just take the point senator cantwell made so well. i've introduced 1355 which is the product safety act that strikes a section of the current law, the section that restricts the information is actually the

disclosure of information. related to the product hazards it permits a manufacturer to challenge the information in federal court if the manufacturer believes that it is not, quote, full in the circumstance which is a vague standard and would improve recall efficiency if they had the teeth it needs to be not a people watchdog can you comment on the potential change in the safety act? >> absolutely. we see with recalls that once the recall is disclosed, consumers can learn about it, but there's this whole hit in recall where you can be discussing and unsafe product for weeks or months before

consumers are even informed. when we talk about products that can injure and kill people with greater disclosure and more promptly about the hazards and toys? >> absolutely, and i think for many that's an issue we saw three specifically in the issue of the incline sleepers. when on april 5th 2019 it was disclosed that there were ten deaths associated with the products and the reports by consumer reports that came out later revealed there were 32. the fact that products can be identified as hazardous and with a lack of the requirement to notify the public around the

specific product leads to increased risk of injury and death for kids. >> would you favor and support the change in the act? >> by the fact that i am not a lawyer i do understand it is in place in part because early information in the investigation and the decisions regarding the recall is often inaccurate and it could be released to the company. but i'm happy to provide a response from the toy association on this issue should you be interested in that following the hearing. >> i would request that you provide that response and i hope

that they will support it because it would simply remove time-consuming and costly roadblocks to the disclosure of information to consumers, if in fact manufacturers block and conceal for lengthy periods of time and i'm hopeful they will support the product safety act that would remove this kind of impediment, so i would welcome and ask you to provide that information. in the first round of questioning let me turn to you because you brought with you the republic slap wrist toy or accessory and held it up

briefly. i know it's still in the package, but i gather that that watch has a lithium battery that can pop out, is that correct? a child that had that watch could easily pop out the battery. the battery would look something like this. and in effect it has an acid that eats through the lining of the trachea or esophagus and the child who swallows it. i guess it's the acid that does the damage but this kind of small bulletin cell battery is found in a wide variety of items. could you list a few of them

that are commonly found in households? >> they can be found in tv remotes, garage doors. we do find them in children's toys of course. object around the house that you may not think of. >> they are powerful batteries that serve an important function but if they are unsafely secured in those items, they can be swallowed by children, correct? can you tell us what happens to the esophagus of a child who swallows one of these batteries? >> those batteries function there is a positive side and negative side. if there's contact between the

two and on the positive side into the negative side at the same time it starts discharging acid in the battery and that is what leads to the electric charge. in the esophagus which is the food tube of the child, the top part of the battery to allow the electricity to flow so it isn't a chemical burn but an electrical burn. it's the first contact between the top and bottom of the batteries of the damage is instantaneous and the degree is a function of the strength of the battery and the duration of time that is in contact with human tissue so we see injury within an hour or less and as experienced within a couple of

hours the damage can be irreversible and potentially fatal. >> does the damage continue after the batteries are removed? >> in the same way that any burn continues to cause tissue damage after the source is removed yes and with electrical burns that is true. >> it has a significant blood supply. it does tend to heal and if they are deep enough and as tragically happens, the perforation or rupture can lead

to longer term issues. >> there is no requirement now as i understand it as they report these kind of injuries, correct? the number that we have which itself is absolutely appalling and horrifying could be only a fraction of the total number to the 250,000 number. >> absolutely, absolutely. >> and let me add, i know that this is more an educated guess on your part than the actual documented scientific data, but what could explain the uptick in 2020 and 93% between march and

september of that year? >> you eluded to this in your opening remarks a lot of it has to do with just exposure. a child who lives in an environment where there are no button or coin batteries is going to have a 0% chance of accessing one and potentially interesting it. the period of time we are talking about, parents are broken away from their routine and forced to be teachers and workers and babysitters and while we know that parental supervision and supervision of caregivers is essential to prevent injuries is completely insufficient and to have the button and coin batteries for longer periods of time without supervision i think goes a long way to explaining this tragic

increase. >> some battery manufacturers have also developed -- should we still push for some kind of mandatory product safety standards that will secure the batteries within whatever the items are? >> absolutely. so much of what we do is install the layers of protection. there's not enough data to support that. i think that there is some promise in it but we don't have any hard data to show and i think that a short of eliminating these from an environment to put the barriers to access in place which would include making it as hard as possible for a battery to be

removed by a child that isn't supposed to have access would be a huge step forward. >> i know that the american academy of pediatrics has done a lot to educate that. they are unaware or aware of the dangers? with the academy policy and everything we have that is denied for families including healthy children.org but there are so many hazards around. it's so ubiquitous i think it is a little bit challenging to get peoples attention and certainly to get peoples attention to the degree that i think the problem works. >> i'm going to turn to the

ranking members. >> thank you, mr. chair man you mentioned in your testimony. i think that it was -- how can we help ensure that the counterfeit items never get into the supply chain that they are stopped before they come in and then likewise had removed recently some of their inspectors, talk about those very quickly. >> i will say they are a little bit outside of my expertise but

-- >> when it comes to these products a lot of them do come into the ports but a lot of them are sold online. giving customers as much information as we can about who is selling the product as well as making sure that they are monitoring so that they were not purchasing. >> and that will get into the section 230 reforms that i mentioned earlier that allow for that transparency and information share. let's go back to what you all at the toy association can do and how you were sharing information with customers, and chair man cantwell mentioned that we have passed when i was over in the house that dealt with information to purchasers of used cars and maybe using that

as a model. to share information with consumers about the dangers of certain toys, and i know at one point you had done work on the resale of toys. thank you for the question. about the products in particular because we know that these products are skirting the copyright law and likely not complying with the top 20 safety standards as well, so we have a couple of years ago issued a white paper on the issue of counterfeit toys and the increased occurrence in the marketplace at what could be done. we provide the people again in

2020 and found with the increase in online sales, the issue continues to increase. every day we see numerous products being sold on the online marketplaces that would violate the top 20 safety standards, so we are working to communicate with the industry and policymakers and consumers. for consumers, we provide information on how to shop the online marketplaces more safely, what to look for. but red flags to avoid in the online forum and more generally, we work year-round to educate consumers on how they can choose age-appropriate toys for their families and their home environment, and also how to supervised play. we have a website, play safe.org

that provides a messaging for consumers so that they can understand what goes into -- >> let me interrupt you right there. and you can do this for the record. i would like to know what organizations you all were partnering with to get this information out. ..

>> . >> you all have any way of quantity —- quantifying counterfeit product that is coming into the marketplace online? >> no. we don't quantify. >> ms. lawrence, do you have

any numbers to quantify what is coming endlessly? so we would rely on the cpsc inspectors as well as cdp to get an estimate of the number of products that are arriving in the us. >> but you have nothing that quantifies what is done online? >> if there is a way because one day a product to be selling but the next day they can. >> i have innovators in tennessee who hold a patent and they are manufacturing in china than one day either an e-mail or in their mailbox they get a flyer for the

product and have the company making for them at a lesser price. i will stay with you on standards. and talk about the importance of the protocols around setting standards for the marketplace and what you do to set the standards. >> our torres safety committee continually is looking at when there is new innovation from products and look at data. and information regarding incidents and how children's behavior is changing over time and all of these pieces of information and resources come together to identify where

emerging hazards make sense or new standards are created. i would mention that listening to their stories a from a personal note that is the story that keeps people up at night and that kind of story that motivates us every day. it is as can the stories that drive us to continually look at those standards and revise them as needed to attract those issues in the marketplace. >> thank you for your testimony and the good work you are doing. >> thank you mr. chairman for today's important hearing and all the witnesses especially

the powerful testimony the story needs to be heard more and more and other outlets of due diligence and they are aware and thank you for the courage and strength to be here today. as the holidays are upon us we are reminded it is supposed to be it's time to come together and celebrate family and community that the toys are given with the best of intentions without even the proper warning of what should be on there which is what we advocacy is but that is made worse with counterfeit products because if you have products that we know are

being manufactured under the guidelines of the environment and they miss the mark so then what happens if it is counterfeit clicks in addition we also know there is price gouging taking place and i was proud to join our chairman and introducing a piece of legislation called which is contributing to that and your gaming devices and then more that with those safe products not just this time of year but for all parts of the year. you outlined in your testimony the availability of counterfeit goods online. >> in my home state one of the areas i have concerns with his

native american art. that causes local artist millions and millions of dollars those that are created overseas and then sold here in the united states and is genuine is a violation federal law needs to stop every time i get a chance you go to jail if you are doing this and you will because. counterfeit safety gear last year any energy commerce committee hearing there was a counterfeit bike that was brought in and a counterfeit helmet and they asked if i would stand on the bicycle helmet i said i might crush under normal circumstances but they assured me that i would wear regularly while i was riding my bike it would not crush the weight i stood on it

and gave it a little bit of pressure and like an egg shell. earlier that year i had a pretty serious fall i went over the handlebars and my helmet stopped me from doing additional damage because they went into a bunch of rocks. so these counterfeit goods could very well cost people their life. so you counterfeit products pose a threat to the health and safety of consumers? >> yes. >> absolutely. >> what step should online platforms take to eliminate the presence of counterfeit goods? make they should inform the consumer with as much information as they can they are purchasing goods from and they can also use their

platform that they are removing them immediately. >> your organization found multiple examples of products available-for-sale online so what more should they do to ensure those dangerous products are not available on their site? think they should make sure they are for recall mean products and to have more accountability and the system one way is to release an annual report. and then to promote the product to begin with. >> so recently taking action to recall more than 10 million magnets that pose serious death concerns if people were to swallow those rare earth

magnets as well and of those recall products if they are corrected or destroyed there is still an uphill battle so how do we improve those numbers to improve the effectiveness of product recall? >> this that they can do through targeted social media as through their social media pages and even use the influencers that they pay the product most important is getting the awareness to the public and while they can most consumers are not aware that database exist is important to market safer products.gov and highlight how important the database is and how it helps consumer. >> .

>> i'm sorry you have to be here today but i am grateful that you are. >> this is been an incredibly important hearing. when parents put a christmas gift under the tree they assume it is safe and nothing can go wrong. they want their children to look at them with big smiles as they unwrap all of the presents under the christmas tree. the cpsc is to make sure none the faces of those children with their parents but historically with those unscrupulous manufacturers.

and those that recall products, to make their way under christmas trees all across our country and children are the victims and the cpsc is supposed to be the cop on the beat to make sure those children are not harmed in our country. so the examples are so many it's hard to focus on all of them the children are vulnerable to toxic substances a minor father that is only an inconvenience to an adult and we know that.

so from my perspective this is a very important hearing and what i would ask from you do we need a commissioners so they can act to put the right type of safety guidelines. >> yes we absolutely do. >> . >> we believe a fully functioning adequately restore cpsc is essential. >> children's toys falls in the category because we know throw toys at the wall and put them in their mouth because are all or toxic chemicals or

small parts. other goods that are concerning is medicine or cosmetics that go on our body or respond to them. >> thank you. here is what i will say. then family that can rely on the federal government to ensure and they don't endanger their children. let's work very hard and that all of the children in our country are protected proactively in the commission is working hard to make sure

these products are never on the shelves in the first place. thank you for the full consideration. >> as the cpsc commissioner to be much better than i could. on behalf of the toy industry association. >> absolutely. it is a small agency with a big mission. and then to see through that

including the addition of a commissioner. >> i really welcome and appreciate your support. >> . doctor hoffman. and then to have those resources to investigate and to have evidence to build a case and those that are necessary to uncover the hazards in the first place. do you agree? >> yes they are needed.

and those that have implemented a mandatory product standard. and these requirements but i believe in 2022. what is that requirement on toy safety in this country? >> i believe it is credible. it is critical to protect children's health. >> do you agree we should

approve the lock? >> i now that totally association applies the work you are doing to help keep children safe from ingestion. and those that is part of the toy safety standards as a model. >> and then to adhere that has a toy safety standard so are you asking that in general?

both. those are required by law so those must demonstrate compliance by the accredited laboratory into be certified they can comply with the standards. and then with a decrease in the number of recalls in a significant decrease so that we do see that making these requirements mandatory and that's to have an impact and that was part of the toy standard in the 19 nineties and and when the battery

ingestion data came out we went through that to look at what are the scenarios and the examples where toys were involved somehow? and it was from situations where batteries were left within their reach. that which we have in the standards and then allow it to get that way but to put the labeling on toys. and in 2016 to implement that addition to the toy standard we have found in most of those

are not related to toys. and those that were left within the child's reach or a child found in the garbage can. >> i really hope they will back reese's lie and when you get back to us and those to incorporate warnings with those compartments to secure whatever you call it of the batteries within the device that they would not tap out to be easily accessible to children. and it is a pep even of mine and highlighted every year balloons.

i am holding up a couple of examples. we were not in the united states senate normally in the press conferences that we have in connecticut and of those remnants that are so easily swallowed and those that are not properly supervised. and in residency caring for an 18 -month-old child who at a birthday party was holding a balloon and an adult came up behind the child to tickle them to startle them so than the balloon popped and the child inhale and then the bullet lodged itself in the airway and he sightly one —-

sadly died as a result in that has forever impacted me. the issue of rubber and latex balloons especially, and is estimated 15 children per year die as a result as aspiration or ingestion of either balloons or parts of balloons. and appreciate that people like balloons and they are fun but they need to be considered a hazard. is not the same risk with mylar balloons which is a good alternative that in 2021 it's hard to come up with an argument why we still need latex or rubber balloons around kids. one of the things to be highlighted talking about toys, kids don't care if it is labeled a toy or not if you give your kids your car

keys they will play with it the way they would with anything else including putting it in their mouth. so we need to look at this from the perspective of kids recognizing everything is a toy and they are built to explore and a lot of that exploration involves putting things in their mouth and what they can do is ensure that kids don't have access to those products. >> that is an explanation not only if they know it is not a toy only if a balloon is made of one substance or another. mylar versus any other. >> that is a much safer

choice. >> the parental supervision is important because asphyxiation can because as a result. >> yes. and i mentioned earlier that parental supervision is and essential layer but it is completely insufficient because nobody is perfect mentioned earlier i had the privilege of working with families who have lost children to help elevate their children to bring their voices to the advocacy work and one parent senator blackburn is still there but a very close friend from tennessee always talks about everybody expects to find of the loophole that will never happen to them but the fact of the matter is it does happen to people to real people who love their kids to care and are doing the best

they possibly can and all it takes is one second of distraction and nobody has the perfect level of supervision. we need those multiple layers with the closures on batteries to make sure they cannot be released and removing potential hazards from the home to make sure they don't get to market that are fundamentally dangerous. and that to a child it doesn't matter if it's called the toy or not rare earth magnets are a toy and they end up in the mouth. >> and i am holding up some examples of those magnets. they are very powerful they

are playthings for adults while they are on the phone. they fiddle with them. but if a child walks into her parents home office and they are really difficult to separate that they are composed of these tiny beads. can you tell us what happens exactly or can happen to a child that they swallow some of these magnets? >> if the child is ingesting one would not be a problem that more than wine they are so strong that they will find each other across the bowel. and they will be drawn to each other and then they squeeze

the bowel tissue between them and then that causes loss of blood supply and the bowel ties. so injury there can happen also within a very short period of time in as little as one hour. it can lead to perforation of the intestines which is a very serious life-threatening condition. and as happens it can be hard to detect and go undetected until it causes serious injury. >> thank you. a number of pieces of legislation which is led by senator casey that requires the cpsc to have safety standards for the storage units for the chest of

drawers. and the second version to reintroduce the consensus agreement among the manufacturers and the other pieces of legislation that have been introduced hopefully we can move them forward. do you support quick. >> yes. we do not have a position. >> and i thank you mentioned that you do. doctor hoffman? >> absolutely american academy of pediatrics supports it strongly. >> i just want to close by again thanking all of our panelists with a powerful record passing leases law and i know that and imposition of

the association but you have made this cause a national issue and i'm proud to introduce leases law was senator blackburn as soon as it is passed the more children we can protected injuries we can prevent so the record will remain open for two weeks in case there any written questions from my colleagues or additional answers from our witnesses. thank you.