Bush signs consumer bill to cut lead in toys

WASHINGTON - Legislation aimed at improving US consumer product safety after millions of Chinese-made toys were recalled last summer was signed into law by President Bush yesterday.

The measure dramatically cuts the amount of lead that is allowed in toys and other children's products.

It also increases funding for the Consumer Product Safety Commission, and partially bans controversial plastic-softening chemicals called phthalates.

"This bill will help to ensure that products Americans find on their store shelves are safe and that the regulating agencies have the resources they need to enforce law," White House Deputy Press Secretary Tony Fratto said in a statement.

Mattel Inc., RC2 Corp., and other companies were forced to pull millions of Chinese-made toys from shelves in 2007, primarily due to excessive lead content in paint.

Under the new law, the product safety commission's annual budget will rise from its current $80 million to $118 million starting in fiscal 2010 and grow to $136 million over five years.

The legislation also mandates national safety standards for all-terrain vehicles, linked to hundreds of deaths each year, as well as set standards for toys.

The curb on phthalates, chemicals that some believe can cause abnormal reproductive development in children, was one of the most controversial provisions in the bill.

Three types of phthalates would be permanently banned in children's toys and child-care items, except for minute amounts, while three others would be temporarily banned pending further study.

The American Chemistry Council said that although it believed there was no scientific basis for the phthalate restriction, it understood consumer concern and was committed to working with the product safety commission and others to conduct the studies to ensure public safety.