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 Colton, then 4, swallowed the trinket and became almost fatally poisoned by the lead it contained. Four years and a battery of tests, surgeries and therapy later, the Redmond, Ore., boy still has elevated levels of lead in his body.
His case, hundreds of more like it and record recalls last year of millions of Chinese-produced toys
-- from Barbie doll accessories to Thomas the Tank Engine -- inspired Congress to try to overhaul the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the agency charged with ensuring that toys and other products pose no hazard.
The Senate could vote as early as Thursday on a bill that would nearly double the agency's budget and increase its staff to nearly 500 people by 2013.
It also would ban lead from children's products and establish a publicly available database of information collected from consumers, hospitals and other sources about injuries, illnesses and deaths from consumer products.
Colton's mother, Kara, visited the Senate this week to tell anyone who would listen about Colton's ordeal.
But he fared better than another 4-year-old, Jarnell Graham of Minneapolis, who died from lead poisoning under similar circumstances.
"My heart broke for his family, and for the first time my emotions about the fact my son almost died hit me," said Kara Burkhart. "No child should ever have to go through anything like this."
Though there is vast agreement about the general need to step up the safety enforcement of children's toys, the legislation is steeped in controversy.
The House in December passed its own version, 407-0, but the Senate bill is markedly different.
Where the Senate version proposes a database of product-related illnesses, the House proposed that the CPSC conduct a study on how to create a database.
Where the Senate version raises the civil penalty cap per violation from $8,000 to $250,000 and the limit for a related series of violations from $1.8 million to $20 million, the House version would raise the penalty limit to $10 million.
The White House and some Republicans oppose some of the tougher standards in the Senate bill and point out that passing two different versions would require time to reconcile the differences and slow the legislation's progress.
Bush has not threatened to veto either version, but the administration issued a statement this week outlining a half-dozen provisions that cause it various levels of "concern."
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The CPSC, it said, should enforce safety standards, not the attorneys general. And the new legal shields for whistleblowers "will cause a serious increase in the number of frivolous claims brought against employers," the statement said.
The White House also said it's concerned about a requirement that toys be tested by independent and privately-owned third parties. "The requirement could disrupt imports of children's products from countries where government laboratories are the primary testing entities."
The tougher standards can't come soon enough, according to parents who have endured the agony of seeing their children's lives threatened by poisoned toys.
Shelby Esses of Jacksonville, Ark., said a database like the one proposed in the Senate version might have sped up her son's diagnosis when he fell ill last fall. The day before Halloween, her son Jacob, 20 months, swallowed Chinese-made beads called Aqua Dots and passed out. He would regain consciousness long enough to vomit up the beads, and then go limp, she recalled.
He was out for about six hours, Esses said, then regained consciousness apparently with no ill effects.
The CPSC ordered Aqua Dots off the store shelves.
Scientists say a chemical coating on the beads, when ingested, metabolizes into gamma hydroxy butyrate
-- the so-called date rape drug. The compound can induce unconsciousness, seizures, drowsiness, coma and death.
But initially, Esses couldn't find anything on the Internet or from the manufacturer about the ingredients of the beads.
"If there had been a database," she said, that would have "made treating him a lot easier."
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The House bill is H.R. 4040. The Senate bill is S. 2663. They can be accessed at
http://thomas.loc.gov/.
[Associated
Press; By LAURIE KELLMAN]
Copyright 2008 The Associated
Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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