Editorial: Head in the sand

Sunday, Oct. 28, 2007 | 7:16 a.m.

As acting chairwoman of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, Nancy Nord has become an example of the indifference the Bush administration has toward consumer protection.

Despite the fact that the commission's staff and budget have been decimated by budget cuts, Nord wrote in USA Today on Tuesday that "consumer products are safer than they have ever been."

Pay no attention to explosive propane grills, defective baby cribs, the toys covered in lead paint imported from China. Never mind that the agency staff is now around 400, down from a high of about 1,000 in the 1970s. Everything is A-OK. Just ask Bob, who has become the face of the commission's staffing problems.

Bob, more formally known as Robert Hundemer, is the commission's sole employee who regularly tests toys. His cramped office is the nation's toy testing "laboratory" - an area behind the door is where toys are dropped to see if they break into small pieces that could be a choking hazard.

"This is the toy lab for all of America - for all of the United States government!" Bob told The New York Times earlier this year. "We do what we can."

No problem, according to Nord. She writes that "manufacturers, importers and retailers are conducting more tests to ensure their products are meeting strict safety standards," as if tests done by companies with significant financial interests in the outcome are trustworthy. And strict standards? The Bush administration has rolled back so many regulations and reporting requirements that meeting those standards is largely voluntary.

Nord also trumpets the increase in recalls , which shouldn't be a surprise considering so many products get to market without a challenge, leading to injuries and deaths.

The fact of the matter is the nation doesn't have the proper rules in place - much less enough people to enforce those rules - to keep the public safe. A former director of consumer affairs for the pro-business, anti-regulation U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Nord has become the Bush administration shill for less industry regulation and oversight as the administration has turned the watchdog of consumer protection into a lap dog of big business interests.

Nord and the administration have disgracefully put business ahead of consumers and that , sadly , has already had tragic consequences, with no doubt more to come.