Database: Setting the Record Straight

Last week, the Los Angeles Times published an article that did not present fully all of the facts on the Majority’s consumer database proposal. To set the record straight, I submitted the following letter to the editor, which was published in today's paper:

Review rules

Re "Whose concerns will make the cut?" Business, Nov. 16 David Lazarus gives the impression that all reports in the Consumer Product Safety Commission's public-backed database will be vetted. Here are the facts: The commission's proposal includes no requirement that reports of harm submitted to the database be verified for accuracy before they are posted. If a manufacturer claims that a report is inaccurate, there is no requirement or even incentive for the commission to review or make a determination on such claims. To make the database more reliable for consumers, I have proposed an alternative rule that improves on these areas; I hope my fellow commissioners will consider it. Without such changes, the commission's saferproducts.gov database will be useless to the very consumers the commission claims to be helping.

Anne M. Northup
Bethesda, Md.

The writer is a commissioner on the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.

Here is the link to letters to the editor: http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/letters/

Here is the link to last week's article: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-lazarus-20101116,0,835664.column