By Sally Greenberg, NCL Executive Director

Today is Wednesday, February 10 in Washington DC: Day Six of a week of unrelenting cold weather and powerful snow storms that rival anything we’ve seen in the last few decades – or century, even. The federal government and local school systems have shut down all week. That’s unthinkable for a power center like Washington, and it means no Congressional hearings, no Supreme Court arguments, no lobbyist meetings with Senators, no presidential press conferences. The only stories on television are about the weather: the white-out conditions, heavy snowfall and 40+ mile per hour winds. Kids and their parents are stir crazy, cooped up at home without access to the usual entertainments – Starbucks coffee, movies, museums, and in some cases cable television and heat!

Because of the hazards to workers trying to slog their way into the office, including our hardworking NCL staff, we told everyone to stay indoors, work from home where possible, and be safe. In fact, local municipalities have asked that people stay off the streets to allow their dedicated staff to do their jobs of clearing the roadways. Their safety too is important; they don’t want cars running into their trucks on the slippery streets or vice versa. The safety and well-being of workers everywhere should be the priority during this most unusual weather crisis.

I was out early shoveling but like Sisyphus (who was compelled to roll a huge rock up a steep hill, but before he could reach the top of the hill, the rock would always roll back down again, forcing him to begin again). To no avail, the wind blew the snow right back onto icy steps. I then slogged through the snow with my dog to deliver a promised homemade loaf of bread to friends who were hosting a gaggle of boys (my son included) who had camped out at their house for the night. My Welsh Terrier eventually refused to walk any further, stopping dead in his tracks in blowing winds. He was fed up with the mounds of snow he had to climb through. I carried him the rest of the way.

It’s interesting to see the most powerful city in the world brought to a standstill by weather that none of the three branches of government can control. Bipartisan bickering has halted, if only for a day or two, and the extremes of this city – the powerful and wealthy and poor and disenfranchised – all contend with inconveniences and danger ranging from digging out their cars to power outages. The only substantive debate seems to be whether the federal government should kick in to support local snow removal budgets in Maryland, Virginia, and the District. We have yet to see how that turns out.

No doubt all will be back to normal in a few days. The weatherman is predicting dry, 36-degree days ahead, but none of us will forget the week in February 2010 when snow storms closed the schools, closed the museums, and closed every branch of government in Washington DC.

By Sally Greenberg, NCL Executive Director

Toyota’s current recall saga reminds me of the movie Groundhog Day – every day it’s the same thing, or a variation. First it was Toyota cars experiencing unintended acceleration caused by improper floor mats and sticky gas pedals, causing the Japanese automaker to issue a massive recall of millions of vehicles, stopping production, and bringing sales to a halt. Then, very quickly, the company announced it had a fix. So soon? (By the way, “product recall” is a misnomer that I find misleading because it suggests the product, in this case a Toyota car, will be retired or taken out of service permanently. That’s not what “recall” means. In this case, a consumer brings in his or her recalled car to a dealer, who fixes the problem at no charge. Recalls are mostly launched because of an inquiry and agreement with the company that it will fix the problem, prompted by consumer complaints about safety.)

I spent 10 years working on auto safety matters at Consumers Union, publisher of Consumer Reports, and I’ve had a hard time sorting out what exactly is going on with Toyota, so I can only imagine how confusing the series of events, reactions, and news coverage must be for consumers who own Toyotas. Members of Congress have scheduled a hearing next week, and two members on the House Energy and Commerce Committee are asking Toyota officials to clarify what exactly happened leading up to this recall. U.S. Toyota President James Lentz apparently told committee staff last year that the company first learned of the sticky pedals in vehicles driven in Ireland and England in April and May of 2009. But Lentz *went on the Today Show this week and claimed that Toyota first became aware of the sticking accelerator pedals in late October of 2009. House members – and consumers – want this inconsistency explained.

Sean Kane, who runs a group called Safety Research and Strategies, documented more than 2,000 instances of unintended acceleration involving Toyotas, resulting in more than 800 crashes and 19 deaths since 1999. Carol Mathews of Rockville complained in 2003 to NHTSA about her Lexus’ sudden acceleration into a tree. Apparently Mathew’s complaint launched an NHTSA investigation.

Meanwhile, to avoid problems with electronic throttles and sudden acceleration, some automakers have introduced brake override systems, which is an electronic adjustment that allows drivers to stop the car even if the throttle is stuck open. But Joan Claybrook, longtime President of the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen and a former NHTSA Administrator, asked a good question: “If it was just a floor mat problem, taking the floor mat out would correct the problem – so why are they putting the brake override in?” Toyota told the Washington Post that this was “an extra measure of confidence like other passive safety features on our vehicles.”  Confidence is likely the last thing many consumers are feeling right now about their Toyotas.

Toyota could have avoided the negative publicity by more being upfront and open about safety problems, letting consumers know it was the company’s intent to fix safety problems. Instead we got inconsistent statements, confusing information, and a rushed fix, which – for better or worse – has been met with skepticism about its effectiveness. There’s a lesson here for all companies: consumers will respect your quick attention to address any safety concerns you uncover and will work with you to get the problem fixed. Don’t bury your head in the sand or blame the consumer for safety problems, as some dealers did.

Toyota — which should agree to be organized by the United Auto Makers union — makes a solid and popular line of vehicles; however, its handling of this recall has been plagued by confusing information and new safety concerns daily. Consumers deserve better. We hope Toyota can deliver on its promises to fix the flaws in the newer models and slow down its production line — if even a little — so that it can return to being the automaker many Americans trust to turn out a great product.

*Links are no longer active as the original sources have removed the content, sometimes due to federal website changes or restructurings.

February is *American Heart Month and this Friday, February 5, we remind everyone to wear red to support women’s heart disease awareness. Heart disease is the number one killer of women each year, and one American dies every minute from a heart attack. By taking a few simple steps, you can reduce your risk of developing heart disease.

The President, in a *proclamation issued earlier this week, reminds us that while costly and devastating, heart disease can largely be prevented. He suggests we protect our families from the disease by taking ‘responsibility for our health and that of our children – including *exercising regularly, maintaining a healthy diet, *avoiding tobacco, and raising our children to spend more time playing outside.’

*Remind your friends and family to love their heart.

*Links are no longer active as the original sources have removed the content, sometimes due to federal website changes or restructurings

by Reid Maki, Child Labor Coalition

This post originally ran in Media Voices for Children, an Internet news agency for children’s rights.

In November, I reminded folks that young children—children who are 12- and 13-years-old and even younger in some cases—harvest fruits and vegetables on many U.S. farms and that many of them are allowed to do so because of loopholes in U.S. child labor law that go back to the 1930s. Child advocates have been trying to close those loopholes for years, and today, I’m happy to report that the campaign is progressing well.

Last week, Rep. William Lacy Clay (D-MO) became the 68th member of Congress to cosponsor the Children’s Act for Responsible Employment (CARE), HR 3564, which would close the legal loopholes and apply the same child labor laws to all working children. The bill, introduced by Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-CA) in September, would preserve an exemption for family farmers so their children could help on the farm, but the children of migrant and seasonal farmworkers who work for wages would have to wait till they are at least 14 to work. The U.S. Department of Labor would evaluate the safety of agricultural jobs to determine if some can be performed by 14- and 15-year-olds. The CARE Act would also prohibit teens in agriculture from doing jobs recognized as very dangerous until they were 18—the age limit in all other industries.

Campaign organizers, including the 24 members of the Child Labor Coalition, the American Federation of Teachers, the Association of Farmworker Opportunity Programs, Human Rights Watch, and First Focus Campaign for Children, are pleased that members of Congress from states with large farmworker communities have embraced the bill. Twenty members of the California delegation have cosponsored CARE. Texas, another state that is home to many migrant farmworkers, boasts seven members who have co-sponsored the bill. The Progressive Caucus has been incredibly supportive with 43 members co-sponsoring the legislation.

Efforts to gain support among advocacy groups are also gaining strength. To date, more than 50 groups have endorsed the CARE legislation, including all the national farmworker groups—Farmworker Justice, the United Farm Workers of America, the Farm Labor Organizing Committee, the National Farmworker Ministry, Student Action with Farmworkers, the Migrant Clinician’s Network, Migrant Legal Action Program, the Migrant and Seasonal Head Start Association and the National Association of State Directors of Migrant Education have all endorsed the bill. It’s great to have such unanimity within the community.

In addition to the farmworker unions, several of America’s largest national unions have also endorsed CARE: the AFL-CIO, Change to Win, the Communications Workers of America, the Teamsters, the National Education Association, the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, and the Laborer’s International Union of North America have said that CARE is needed to protect child farmworkers and help farmworker families escape the generational poverty that traps them.

Hispanic advocacy groups have also spoken as one. The National Council of La Raza, the League of United Latin American Citizens, the Hispanic Federation, the United States Hispanic Leadership Institute, and MANA, a National Latina Organization have all given CARE an emphatic thumbs up.

Other advocacy groups that have endorsed the legislation include the American Association of University Women, Interfaith Worker Justice, the International Labor Rights Forum, the NAACP, the National Collaboration for Youth, the United States Student Association, and the National Organization for Women. We are so pleased that these groups have come together to support farmworker children. In the past, the plight of these kids has not gotten much national attention, but we were really pleased with the ABC News coverage

of these working children in November. The report, which appeared on Nightline, Good Morning America and the ABC World News, found several children under 12 in Michigan picking blueberries, including a 5-year-old. The children sometimes work till 9:00 p.m. One 11-year-old told reporters he was in his third year in the fields. Another small child talked about the danger when pesticides are sprayed nearby.

Josie Ellis, a nurse with Migrant Health, told Nightline that the fields in North Carolina, where she is based, are full of working children.

She noted that the kids acquire severe rashes, respiratory illnesses, and neurological impairments from their contact with pesticides. They also miss out on their childhoods because they are working long hours. “Play is something that migrant children know very little about. Work they know,” said Ellis. “We see frustration. We see really tired kids. We see depression in children….despair…the inability to dream…the inability to see past high school…the inability to see past junior high school….I think it’s shameful that our nation tolerates child labor,” added Ellis. We are told that NBC News is working on a piece that should appear sometime this spring.

The Children in the Fields Campaign organizers were also pleased that La Opinión, the nation’s largest circulation Spanish-language newspaper endorsed the CARE Act on September 26th: “The Children’s Act for Responsible Employment (CARE) begins to correct legislation that harms primarily poor, Latino, and immigrant children and young people. There is no justification for permitting minors to work in the fields when it is unlawful for them to work in other types of employment under better conditions. Children of agricultural workers deserve the protection granted to all youth.”

One of the great things about being involved in a campaign like this is the amazing people you meet. In a prior blog, I spoke about Norma Flores, a young woman who spoke eloquently about her experiences in the fields and the many friends she worked with who became exhausted and overwhelmed by their work and dropped out of school. Now in her twenties and working on the Children in the Fields Campaign, Norma recalled her years as a child farmworker. “I hated it,” said Norma. “I hated to work in the fields. I hated getting sweaty and dirty. I hated getting blisters and cuts and sunburns. I hated finishing my row of work only to see there was no water to drink at the end. I hated to have to walk half a mile to go to a dirty portable toilet. I hated how the work affected me outside of the fields. I hated having to enroll in school late every year, to have to make up months of assignments and have to fight to get my school credits.”

Recently, I received moving testimony about working in the fields as a child from Julia Perez, who lives in Arizona and has also become a part of our movement to end this injustice:

My earliest memories start at the age of 5, when I was pulled out of school to start working in the strawberries in Oregon. We then headed to another labor camp in Idaho where I was handed a knife to start topping onions. I cut myself a lot, once really bad on my knee because as it turned out I needed glasses. My days consisted of early, wet, mornings starting at 4am and long 10-12 hrs days of work. This went on for 6 months a year in 10 different states. This was the end of my childhood. I was five, but my back and knees ached like an old person, I had scars from all the cuts, I hated the camps with bathrooms outside. We were so tired at the end of the day, we only showered once a week and mostly I didn’t want to miss school.

Julia noted that only one of her 20 nieces and nephews have gone to college. Child labor robs children of their futures. Can we continue to ask these children to make such huge sacrifices? Please call your Congress member and urge the passage of the Children’s Act for Responsible Employment—the CARE Act—today.

Update: Late in the day on Monday, January 25, 2010, President Obama announced his intent to nominate Dr. Elisabeth Hagen for the position of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Under Secretary for Food Safety.  Dr. Hagen currently serves as the USDA’s Chief Medical Officer.  For more information, see the official USDA News Release.

By Courtney Brein, Linda Golodner Food Safety and Nutrition Fellow

While issues such as the recession, the unemployment rate, and the health reform debate ruled the airwaves in 2009, a number of food-related issues nonetheless grabbed the attention of American consumers. From the mass peanut product recall to the news coverage of the White House garden to the rising hunger rates, food issues not only made the news but directly impacted millions of Americans last year. Here, in a four-part series, we present the food issues that we anticipate will affect American consumers the most – in addition to attracting media attention – in the coming year.

Food Safety

As the recent outbreaks of foodborne illness linked to contaminated spinach, peanut butter, and cookie dough underscore, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) does not currently possess the authority, funding, and capacity to adequately ensure the safety of food consumers purchase, whether it be imported items or those produced in the United States. Making food in the U.S. significantly safer than it is now will require FDA reform legislation, a goal towards which the National Consumers League has been working, along with fellow members of the Make Our Food Safe coalition.

In July, the House overwhelmingly passed H.R. 2749, its version of FDA food safety reform, which would increase the regulatory powers of the FDA, require food from other countries to meet the same safety standards as food produced in the United States, establish a national food tracing system, and require all food processing facilities to implement food safety plans. The Senate bill, S. 510, contains many of the key provisions in the House bill, although it lacks the strength of that legislation in several areas, including inspection frequency and oversight of imported foods. Nonetheless, S. 510 would give FDA the authorities it needs to create a food safety system focused on preventing foodborne illness, rather than on simply responding to outbreaks as they occur. The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor & Pensions (HELP) unanimously approved this bipartisan piece of legislation in November. Now, as soon as possible, the Senate needs to bring the bill to the floor for a vote, in order to make food-safety reform a reality. The Make Our Food Safe Coalition and victims of foodborne illness and their families will continue to call for Congress to enact food safety legislation until it does so.

Once food safety legislation passes, consumers should look to Michael Taylor, the newly named FDA deputy commissioner for foods, to implement the new laws designed to prevent outbreaks of foodborne illness. This new position – Taylor is the first to hold it – will help to increase the focus on food in the agency, which also regulates drugs and medical devices.

While the position of FDA deputy commissioner for foods is now filled, numerous other food-related administration positions continue to remain vacant. The top food safety post at USDA, that of Undersecretary for Food Safety, is the most significant of these empty spots, but four other USDA positions – general counsel; chief financial officer; undersecretary for research, education and economics; and administrator of the Foreign Agricultural Service – have not yet been filled. Several of the vacancies require presidential nomination and Senate confirmation; the USDA requires individuals in all of these positions in order to best ensure the safety of meat, poultry, and other USDA-regulated food products. Consumers should expect – and demand – that these vacancies be filled in early 2010. Contact the White House and ask President Obama to nominate individuals for the two undersecretary and general counsel positions.