Nancy Glick

World Food Safety Day 2025 Is a Call to Action

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By Nancy Glick, Director of Food and Nutrition Policy

Most Americans know about Earth Day and World AIDS Day. But World Food Safety Day, an observance established by the World Health Organization (WHO) and celebrated around the world on June 7, largely goes unnoticed in the U.S.  

This is why the National Consumers League is flagging June 7 as a day when consumers should stop and think about the importance of preventing foodborne illnesses. Each year, this collection of diseases sickens an estimated 48 million people in the U.S., resulting in 128,000 hospitalizations and 3,000 deaths, according to the  Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The toll in costs to the nation is as much as $90 billion annually in medical expenditures, lost productivity, and premature deaths.  

Foodborne illness is not a new problem. Since NCL’s founding in 1899, the organization has been fighting to protect Americans from exposure to the harmful bacteria, viruses, parasites, and chemical substances in food that cause foodborne illness. We helped expose the unsanitary practices of the meat-packing industry, which led to the passage of the Pure Food and Drug Act in 1906, laying a foundation for the nation’s first consumer protection agency, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). We also championed the passage of the Federal Meat Inspection Act of 1906 (FMIA), a landmark law aimed at guaranteeing meat is slaughtered and processed under sanitary conditions and ensuring adulterated or misbranded meat and meat products are not sold in interstate and foreign commerce.  

After these successes, NCL focused on pesticide residues in food, putting pressure on lawmakers to protect consumers from impure, improperly labeled products by passing the first pesticide legislation in 1910. We next fought to establish the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and to enact the Food Quality Protection Act in 1996, which set stricter safety standards for pesticide residue levels in food.  

Then came the infamous 1993 foodborne illness outbreak when people ate undercooked hamburgers at Jack-in-the-Box restaurants in Washington state, Idaho, California, and Nevada. The hamburger meat was contaminated with E. coli O157: H7 bacteria, a potentially deadly strain, and the pathogen severely sickened approximately 700 people, caused 171 hospitalizations, and killed four young children.  

This tragedy propelled NCL and other consumer and food safety organizations to fight to transform meat and poultry inspection and many things changed.
E. coli O157: H7 was declared an adulterant in raw ground beef, triggering a mandatory testing program for the organism in federally inspected plants and retail stores. The FDA issued rules requiring that the food industry follow a food safety management system called Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) that identifies, evaluates, and controls hazards throughout the food production process, from raw materials to the finished product.  

Later, with the passage of the Food Safety Modernization Act in 2010, the FDA ushered in a series of food safety regulations and new systems, such as the proficiency testing program that integrates the FDA’s Food Emergency Response Network (FERN), the nation’s food laboratories at the local, state, and federal level that collectively test food for pathogens and contaminants to prevent foodborne illness. Similarly, the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) published a proposed rule to require poultry producers to use new technologies for early detection of foodborne pathogens to keep Salmonella-contaminated chicken carcasses and poultry parts from entering the market. 

But, even with these developments, the nation is not where it should be to keep the food supply safe. In late 2024, an E. coli O157:H7 outbreak linked to romaine lettuce sickened 89 people across 15 U.S. states, resulting in 36 hospitalizations and one death. The FDA investigated the outbreak and traced it to romaine lettuce, but the agency chose not to publicly announce the outbreak, which food safety advocates believe was a failure to protect the public.  

And now, the Trump administration is taking steps that could seriously roll back food safety protections. Among the actions, the administration has laid off scientists at food safety labs and eliminated two important food safety committees comprising top scientists and researchers with expertise on regulatory standards. Additionally, the administration delayed a requirement that food companies and grocers rapidly trace contaminated food through the supply chain and pull it off the shelves. Sadly, the administration also withdrew the USDA proposed rule to reduce Salmonella risk in poultry.  

Officials at the Department of Health and Human Services have issued statements proclaiming food safety as a priority concern. But, unless there is a strong, coordinated, and comprehensive food safety system in the U.S., there will be declining public confidence in the food supply. More significantly, we are likely to witness an increase in outbreaks and illnesses that could have been prevented.  

This is not a time to hope for the best. Foodborne pathogens are widespread, and they can kill. Accordingly, NCL and many concerned consumer and food safety organizations will continue to speak out about putting the safety of the public ahead of deregulation and federal cost-cutting.  

Guest blog: Trump’s War on the CPSC Is the Most Dangerous Yet

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By Robert Adler and R. David Pittle, Ph.D.

If you think that President Trump’s legally dubious war on regulatory agencies like EEOC, NLRB, and FTC is outrageous, be prepared to recognize the tiny Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) as the hands-down winner for most savaged regulatory agency in this administration.

CPSC is the federal body whose sole mission is to reduce the estimated 49,000 deaths and 28 million medically treated injuries from using consumer products; these losses cost the country $1 trillion annually.

Not only has Trump just illegally fired the Democratic commissioners – and only the Democrats – at CPSC, he has also, according to a leaked OMB budget document, coupled this action with a proposed dismantling of the agency. If he gets his way, he will send CPSC’s substantially reduced staff and diminished authority into the bowels of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) never to be seen again.

This situation is so dire for consumers because unlike the independent agencies where Trump has fired commissioners but left their basic structures intact, his demolition of CPSC will prevent the agency from doing its core work or ever reconstituting itself. Once it has been torn apart, entombed in HHS, and its already minuscule budget skeletonized, the odds of restoring CPSC’s ability to function effectively to protect consumers will be virtually nil. The consequences for consumers will be increased deaths and injuries.

To say the least, parents throughout the country should be alarmed. For the past fifty years, CPSC has been the one agency most dedicated to protecting children from dangerous products. Worst of all, many of these hazards are not obvious to the naked or untrained eye.

Parents should particularly worry because not only is it likely that the new emasculated HHS safety division’s existing standards will be weakened but also future safety rules to protect their children will simply not be written. Behind the scenes, it will take only a wink-and-a-nod from the political idealogues overseeing the new division to stop safety actions in their tracks. And such inaction will go unnoticed given its newly imposed invisibility.

What makes CPSC so valuable to consumers and especially parents is its focus on hidden hazards, i.e., those risks to children that the most safety-conscious parents would not discover even after carefully inspecting a crib or a toy they’re about to purchase. For instance, determining whether a crib’s slats are too far apart—permitting a child’s body but not their head to slip through the slats too often resulting in the child’s strangulation – is not obvious. Nor can careful inspection reveal whether a doll has excessive amounts of toxic lead or contains small parts that could easily break free and choke a child.

CPSC can uncover these hazards because it meticulously and relentlessly surveys the market for injuries, illness, and deaths associated with consumer products. Once it has determined that a hazard needs to be addressed, CPSC can quickly mobilize manufacturers, consumers, voluntary standards groups, retailers, product designers, and the media to attack the problem.

Unfortunately, no one has yet found a way to eliminate products with design defects and manufacturing errors from creeping into the marketplace. The press of fierce competition has shown over the years that such mistakes are inevitable, and consumers pay a painful price. An effective CPSC to find and correct these mistakes is an essential guardrail for consumers.

One might ask why it’s so important that CPSC remain as an independent, highly visible agency. As former CPSC Commissioners who have worked at, monitored, and written about the agency for the past fifty years, we believe the answer is unambiguous: To be effective in protecting consumers from serous safety hazards, the agency needs to be free of improper control from political and commercial interests – concerns that led Congress in 1972 specifically to reject placing CPSC within what was then known as Health, Education & Welfare (HEW). And, it must have the ability to take swift action that gets the public’s attention without going through endless, time-consuming levels of review.

In short, were CPSC to be subsumed in a monolith like HHS and stripped of its independence and visibility, the likelihood of timely and effective safety action would be seriously compromised.

Consumers have benefited greatly from CPSC’s actions. Since the agency opened its doors in 1973, it has reduced the number of crib deaths by nearly 80 percent, childhood poisonings by over 80 percent, injuries from fire by 41 percent, injuries from baby walkers by almost 90 percent, and virtually eliminated childhood suffocations from playing in abandoned refrigerators. The complete list goes on and on, but the fact remains that CPSC provides one of the biggest bangs for the buck in government.

Product safety is not a political issue. The battle against human losses from unreasonably dangerous products must go on without political interference. To do otherwise would be a major injustice against consumers and their families, prompting us to recall Reinhold Niebuhr’s famous observation:

“Man’s capacity for justice makes democracy possible, but man’s inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary.”

Obesity Medication Misinformation Crisis Won’t End with FDA Deadline

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By Sally Greenberg, NCL CEO

America is in the grip of a second obesity crisis—while the first one centers around sky-high rates of chronic disease and access to care, the second one ties to truth.  

As millions of Americans seek effective treatments for obesity, they are being targeted by a wave of misinformation and exploitation. Bad actors—med-spas, illegal online pharmacies, and others—are marketing non-FDA-approved GLP-1 drugs while making misleading or untrue claims about their safety and effectiveness.  

The World Health Organization calls this flood of disinformation an infodemic: a deluge of information, some accurate, most deceptive, designed to mislead, confuse, and exploit. It spreads online at lightning speed and puts patient safety at risk.  

As the nation’s oldest consumer organization—now in its 126th year—the National Consumers League (NCL) believes it is our duty to protect Americans from the rampant fraud infecting the weight loss drug market. That’s why we launched The Weight Truth, a national mobilization to combat the falsehoods circulating online about GLP-1s. 

The Wild West of the GLP-1 Market 

The FDA declared the GLP-1 medication shortage over in April 2025. When the shortage began in 2022, due to high demand and limited supply, the FDA permitted licensed compounding pharmacies to fill the gap by preparing so-called compounded versions of these drugs. This temporary fix, however, opened the door to a sprawling marketplace of both legitimate and illicit non-FDA approved versions of GLP-1s.  

While compounding outside of a shortage situation is appropriate for individual patients with unique medical needs such as allergies to specific ingredients in commercial medications, children who need special dosing, or those with difficulty swallowing pills, compounded drugs are not required to meet the high level of safety, efficacy, and good manufacturing processes standards for drugs that have received FDA approval. Simply put, they are not made using the same guardrails as FDA-approved versions and have not been tested in large populations, so they pose more potential risks to patients. They therefore should never be produced on a mass marketing basis except in very limited situations where the FDA has declared a shortage of drugs in high demand. 

Hundreds of millions of doses of both legitimate compounded products and illegitimate GLP-1s flooded the market, and many claimed – without any proof – the same or better benefits than FDA-approved versions.  

Data shows that consumer health has taken a hit. As of February 2025, the FDA received over 775 adverse event reports for compounded GLP-1 drugs, including reports of 17 deaths and over 100 hospitalizations. Moreover, poison control centers report nearly a 1,500 percent increase in calls since 2019 related to overdosing or side effects of injectable GLP1 usage. Because most compounding pharmacies are not required to report adverse events from compounded drugs, the FDA indicates it is “likely that adverse events from compounded versions of GLP-1 drugs are underreported.” 

May 22: A Turning Point for Consumer Safety? 

We should be at a turning point — the FDA has stated that as of May 22, companies should no longer mass-produce compounded GLP-1s. If they do, they will be in violation of the Food, Drug, and Cosmetics Act and may be subject to penalties, recalls, and other sanctions.  

This FDA-issued deadline should provide clarity for consumers who need GLP-1 medications, since as of that date, only products that are “FDA– approved” and are prescribed by a medical professional should be on the market.  

However, NCL is concerned that, as a result of this “infodemic,” the marketing of compounded and other nonlegal weight loss products will continue and will confuse and hide facts from consumers and patients who are trying very hard to manage chronic diseases like obesity. We must ensure compounders abide by these important regulatory rules.  

Our concerns are not unfounded. The recent NCL national survey of perceptions of compounded GLP-1 products sold online shows significant confusion about GLP-1 products amongst women. Key findings include: 

  • 85% believe the false claims made in online ads for compounded GLP-1s. 
  • 71% believe compounded GLP-1s must be tested and proven safe to be sold. 
  • 53% think compounded GLP-1s are FDA-approved. 
  • 49% believe they contain the same active ingredients as the real thing. 

None of these beliefs are true. 

A Blueprint for National Action 

Both the FDA and consumers have roles to play in addressing this infodemic. We urge the FDA to enforce federal law and its long-standing safety-guided standards for compounded products now that GLP-1 products are no longer in shortage. We also call on consumers to take specific steps to learn the truth about GLP-1s and understand what’s FDA-approved, fake, and what’s at risk. Here’s what consumers can do:  

  1. Know that the compounded versions of GLP-1s that were substitutes for the FDA-approved medicines are not permitted on the market after May 22, and if you see them, it’s a red flag. 
  2. Educate yourself by going to The Weight Truth website.
  3. Be aware that FDA-approved GLP-1s are not found in gummy, chewable, patch, nasal, or sublingual forms.  
  4. Ask the healthcare provider or company selling you the GLP-1 if it’s the brand product.  
  5. Report fake GLP-1s to us through The Weight Truth website.

Join us as we seek to spread the word about the weight truth and replace misinformation about GLP-1 medications with the truth. 

Let’s bring real reform to live events in Maine

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By John Breyault, NCL VP of Telecommunication and Fraud

For music and entertainment lovers in Maine—whether you are lining up for a concert at the State Theatre or a summer show at Thompson’s Point—the thrill of a live event often begins with a headache: buying the ticket.

Hidden fees, confusing pricing, shady scalpers, and limited options to transfer or resell tickets have become the norm. Recognizing this, Maine Senate President Matthea Daughtry introduced legislation earlier this year intended to bring long-overdue fairness and transparency to Maine’s ticketing market.

Unfortunately, as the bill has moved through Augusta, powerful industry lobbyists have been hard at work reshaping it to benefit the entertainment giants—at the expense of everyday Mainers.

As a consumer advocate who has spent over 15 years fighting monopolistic behavior in the live event industry, I have seen this pattern before. Companies like Live Nation-Ticketmaster, which control vast swaths of the event ecosystem, use their influence to preserve an unfair status quo. Maine should not let them write the rules.

Price Caps May Hurt More Than Help

A major element of the bill—a proposed 10% cap on ticket resale prices—could backfire. While well-intentioned, resale caps often drive fans toward risky, unregulated markets such as Facebook Marketplace, Craigslist, or international resale websites.

The data backs this up. A recent U.K. study found that countries with capped resale prices, like Ireland and Australia, see ticket fraud rates nearly four times higher than in the U.K., where resale is unrestricted. If Maine pursues a cap, it must also fund enforcement. Otherwise, fans are on their own.

Transparency Should Help Fans, Not Confuse Them

Another of the bill’s central reforms is transparency in ticket pricing—an idea that is overdue. It aims to eliminate “junk fees” that often inflate ticket costs by 27% or more, usually without warning until the final screen. Fans deserve to know the total price they will pay upfront, and this part of the bill has widespread support.

But the current draft goes a step too far: it mandates that every individual fee be broken out and listed next to the total price. This may sound like transparency, but in reality, it creates more confusion. Most people do not care how the ticket price is sliced up—they care what it costs to get in the door.

Worse, there is no standardized way sellers itemize fees. That means consumers will struggle to compare offers across platforms, undermining competition and informed choice. It is also inconsistent with new federal rules that promote simple, upfront pricing.

So why insist on a detailed fee breakdown? Because it helps venues and promoters in their negotiations with ticketing companies—not because it improves the fan experience.

Refund Rules Shouldn’t Be One-Sided

Finally, the bill also creates a refund gap. If an event is canceled, it only requires ticket resellers to refund consumers—not original sellers like Ticketmaster or venue box offices. That is not just unfair—it is outrageous.

Under this proposal, an event organizer could postpone a show and keep your money until the event is rescheduled. Mainers should not be forced to give interest-free loans to billion-dollar corporations just because a concert did not happen.

Let’s Get This Right

The arts and music scene is a treasured part of life in Maine. Whether you are seeing a nationally touring act or a local band on the rise, fans deserve a fair ticketing system that puts their needs first—not those of the entertainment industry’s biggest players.

Senator Daughtry’s bill began with the right goals. But as currently written, it risks making things worse. With a few smart changes, the Maine Legislature can deliver true reform—ensuring transparency, fairness, and consumer protection in a market that desperately needs it.

Let’s finish the job—and put fans first.

Visiting Jane Addams Hull House Museum in Chicago in April 2025

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By Sally Greenberg, NCL CEO

How fortunate we were to be in Chicago for the 31st teen consumer education competition this April 2025. Fortunate for several reasons – Chicago is truly one of the world’s great cities: wonderful architecture, grand old buildings, and charming neighborhoods, each with its own restaurants and customs.

However, we were fortunate as well because the roots of our organization, the National Consumers League, are found at Chicago’s Hull House. Today, it’s called Jane Addam Hull House Museum and is a National Historic Landmark. 

This site was America’s most famous original settlement house, today on the campus of the University of Chicago. The House was founded in 1889 by Jane Addams and her partner, Ellen Gates Starr, to serve poor Greek, German, Irish, Italian, Bohemian, Russian, and Polish Jewish immigrants flooding to Chicago to work in the city’s burgeoning industries. Addams was a prolific author and social reform visionary (she won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1931), opening the doors of Hull House for residents and their children in surrounding tenements, offering cultural experiences like dance, theater, and music, classes in English, weaving, American customs, and public baths. Little children were welcomed to the nursery and older children attended kindergarten.

Hull House Museum, with its many bedrooms and function rooms, became home to social reformers like NCL’s Florence Kelley. Other residents of the Hull House included Dr. Alice Hamiliton, Julia Lathrop, Grace and Edith Abbott, and Sophonisba Breckenridge. Kelley had fled New York City and an abusive husband, taking her three children with her Hull House in Chicago and successfully filing for divorce in the Illinois courts. She lived and worked alongside Addams. NCL co-founder Francis Perkins accepted a teaching position in Lake Forest, Illinois, in 1904 and immediately began to spend her free time at Hull House. 

Kelley served in the 1890s as chief factory inspector for the State of Illinois and undertook a project to map tenements. Kelley documented the overcrowded, dilapidated rooms, tracking wages, working conditions, and ages of residents. She discovered children as young as 4 and 5 not attending school but working many hours a day inside dark, airless dwellings with their families for pennies a day. Infectious diseases spread rapidly in these conditions, and many children and adults died. Kelley’s mapping effort provided critical data to enable her to make the case for comprehensive reforms. Addams enlisted Kelley to serve as General Secretary when they decided to form the National Consumers League.

So, my colleague Karen Silberstein, also a history buff, ventured to the Near West Side to see Hull House Museum. We beamed with pride at the exhibit of Florence Kelley, showing the “White Label” that she created to give to factories that respected worker rights. The exhibit describes her as a “labor activist, consumer advocate, and attorney.” Kelley later received her degree after taking night classes at Northwestern Law School.

We walked through the first and second floors, seeing exhibits of the many reformers and residents of Hull House and marveling at the looms, yielding handiwork and extensive crafts of Hull House. We read romantic poems and letters – once kept from the public but now proudly displayed – from Addams to her life partner, Mary Rozet Smith.

Hull House actually had 13 buildings, and while most of them aren’t open to the public, this national treasure is a must-see for Americans who are fascinated by our nation’s history during the turn of the 20th Century and the Progressive Era. NCL is proud to be an essential part of this American heritage. 

 

Guest blog: Sweet treats, bitter reality: The human cost of cocoa

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By Emily McKay, NCL Spring Communications Intern

For many, April brings the joy of Easter with children awakening to an Easter Basket filled with treats or searching in the grass for eggs and chocolate. But while children here delight in eating a chocolate bunny, 1.56 million children are working in West African cocoa fields, harvesting the very cocoa that makes our Easter candy possible. [^1]  How does a consumer know if the chocolate they are eating involves child labor?    

Thankfully, organizations like Be Slavery Free, an Australian coalition campaigning against modern slavery are making it easier for consumers to hold chocolate companies accountable. By ranking brands based on their child labor policies and transparency, the 6th annual chocolate scorecard has helped bring meaningful change.  

Cocoa, one of West Africa’s major exports, is predominantly grown in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana, which together produce 50% of the world’s cocoa supply.[^2] The region’s cocoa industry began booming in the late 19th century when Ghanaian farmers discovered they could earn ten times more from cocoa than from palm oil. By 1886, British colonial authorities began promoting cocoa cultivation through training programs and seed distribution. By 1936, Ghana’s annual cocoa output had reached 311,000 tons.    

Around the same time, in Côte d’Ivoire, the Kru people—an indigenous ethnic group—began cultivating cocoa as well. [^3] In 1946, French colonial authorities recognized cocoa’s potential and expanded its cultivation across the country. By 1960, Côte d’Ivoire had gained independence, and the chocolate industry was flourishing. In 1977, Côte d’Ivoire surpassed Ghana to become the world’s leading cocoa producer.[^3]   

Sadly, exploitative labor practices have long plagued the chocolate industry. Today, the global chocolate market is worth over $100 billion, yet many cocoa farmers live on less than a dollar a day. [^4] Child labor is widespread, and many children involved in cocoa farming are subjected to exploitation and, in some cases, modern slavery.    

In recent years, the U.S. government has withdrawn funding for programs aimed at fighting child labor and slavery worldwide—including within the cocoa industry. As government efforts wane, the responsibility falls to consumers to become informed and take action against child exploitation.   

Today, 82% of chocolate companies publicly disclose data on child labor—up from just 45% a few years ago. This progress is encouraging, but disclosure alone is not enough. Consumers must continue pushing for real change. Twenty-five years ago, chocolate companies pledged to eliminate child labor. Yet the practice remains entrenched. In a time when regulatory action is lacking, it is up to us—as informed, ethical consumers—to make responsible choices and demand accountability from the companies behind our favorite treats.   

[1] https://www.dol.gov/agencies/ilab/our-work/child-forced-labor-trafficking/child-labor-cocoa   

[2] https://www.kakaoplattform.ch/about-cocoa/cocoa-facts-and-figures#:~:text=In%20the%20last%20cocoa%20season,is%20the%20largest%20producer%20country.   

[3] https://www.antislavery.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/1_cocoa_report_2004.pdf   

[4] https://fairworldproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/GA-NORC-report-press-release-Child-Labor-and-Farmer-Poverty.pdf  

Don’t throw auto safety in reverse

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By Daniel Greene, Senior Director of Consumer Protection & Product Safety Policy

If traffic safety were a war, we’d be losing.   

Our nation suffers approximately 40,000 deaths and 2.6 million injuries to traffic crashes each year.   

That’s enough fatalities to fill the average Major League Baseball stadium.  Enough injuries to affect nearly every resident of the state of Alabama. 

Traffic crashes cost society nearly a trillion dollars in medical bills, emergency services, lost productivity, insurance costs, workplace loss, legal costs, and property damage.  That’s enough money to buy more than 26 million mid-size SUVs; ten million more than the total number of cars sold in 2024.   

No Congressional district has been spared.  No community is immune.   

Yet, the death and destruction on our nation’s roads does not have to be the price we pay for commuting to work, dropping the kids off at school, or picking up groceries.  By harnessing revolutionary safety technologies, educating the motoring public, and improving the design, construction and performance of motor vehicles, we can dramatically improve roadway safety.   

Fortunately, there is a federal agency responsible for carrying out such activities.  The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is our nation’s principal automobile safety regulator, charged with reducing death and injuries associated with traffic accidents.  NHTSA carries out its lifesaving mission by establishing safety standards, investigating defects, enforcing recalls, and providing states resources for driver education, risky driving countermeasures, and roadside safety. 

NHTSA has delivered.  Safety features that were once rare and unique are now common and conventional: seatbelts, airbags, and crumple zones, to name a few.  Many of these features were adopted to comply with increasingly ambitious safety standards. The result: fewer fatalities and injuries on our nation’s roads. 

From 1968 through 2019, NHTSA’s safety standards prevented over 860,000 deaths, 49 million injuries, and damage to 65 million vehicles, generating over $17.3 trillion in societal benefits.  In 2019 alone, standards prevented 40,000 deaths, 1.9 million injuries, and damage to 3.8 million vehicles.  

NHTSA has also successfully taken unsafe vehicles off our nation’s roadways.  Since 1968, NHTSA has participated in the recall of more than 390 million vehicles, 66 million pieces of motor vehicle equipment, 46 million tires, and 42 million car seats due to safety defects.   

NHTSA has compelled manufacturers to replace tens of millions of volatile and explosive airbags, millions of defective tires prone to tread separation, and millions of sticky car seat buckles that entrap children.  The agency has facilitated the remedy of millions of vehicles with incidents of unintended acceleration, millions of faulty ignition switches that deactivate the engine and airbags while a vehicle is in motion, and “self-driving” technology that cannot safely perform the driving task. 

NTHSA is on the cusp of ushering in new transformational safety technologies that may exceed the lifesaving effects of seatbelts and airbags.  The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law mandates that NHTSA support the deployment of several sophisticated safety technologies:   

  • Drunk and impaired driving prevention technology: Over 13,000 people were killed in drunk driving crashes in 2022.    
  • Crash avoidance technology: Forward collision warning and automatic emergency brakes have been shown to reduce injuries associated with front-to-rear crashes by 56 percent.  Lane departure warnings could reduce single-vehicle, sideswipe, and head-on crashes causing injury by 21 percent.  Blind-spot detection has been shown to reduce lane-change crashes that result in injuries by 23 percent.   
  • Driver monitoring systems: Distracted driving claimed an estimated 12,405 lives in 2021.  Drowsy driving caused 664 deaths that same year.   

Many of these requirements are actively being implemented but are not yet finalized.   

With NHTSA on the beat, safety is a priority and not an afterthought.  It must be built into the design, construction, and performance of each vehicle.  It must be engrained in every bolt, sensor, and line of code of a vehicle.   

But this vital safety agency is under unprecedented assault.  Championed by Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency, the Trump Administration has launched a shock and awe campaign, taking a chainsaw to the key pillars of a well-functioning government.  The indiscriminate firing of civil servants, unlawful impoundment of congressionally directed spending, and work stoppages have had deeply destabilizing effects across the federal government.  The chaos has wreaked havoc on NHTSA’s ability to carry out its most basic functions.    

Approximately 1 in 20 NHTSA employees were fired in the February purge of probationary workers.  That included researchers studying impaired driving and traffic safety measures.  Several members of the Office of Defect Investigations, which is responsible for investigating defects and mandating recalls, have been dismissed.  The Office has been increasingly scrutinizing Tesla, which Elon Musk owns.  Employees within the Department of Transportation cannot access their former colleagues’ files, making it virtually impossible to continue their work.  

Through an Executive Order, the Trump Administration has directed federal agencies to “identify at least 10 existing rules, regulations, or guidance documents to be repealed” for every new rule, regulation, or guidance that is promulgated.  As of December, NHTSA had yet to finalize 19 rulemakings mandated by Congress, all through bipartisan legislation.  In the Fall Unified Regulatory Agenda, NHTSA identified 56 ongoing rulemaking proceedings, some of which had been completed prior to Trump taking office.  It may not even be possible for NHTSA to identify the hundreds of existing rules, regulations, and guidance documents necessary to finalize Congressionally directed and ongoing rulemakings while complying with the 10-to-1 rule. 

If the past is a prologue, vital automobile safety activities may fall by the wayside.  During the Biden Administration, NHTSA finalized 29 rules creating or modernizing safety standards.  The first Trump Administration finalized only nine such rules.  The Biden Administration conducted 224 investigations of potential safety defects.  The first Trump Administration initiated only 103.   

Worse yet, deeper cuts may be forthcoming.  Every federal agency was required to produce an Agency Reduction in Force and Reorganization Plan by March 13, 2025.  Such plans must seek to achieve significant staff reductions, reduced budgets, and reduced real property footprint. 

Some are calling on NHTSA’s budget to be slashed by 60 percent and the workforce reduced by 30 percent, returning the agency to 1990s-era levels.  Such plans include cutting state safety grants by 75 percent, slashing crash test facilities and testing by 75 percent, and ending vital safety initiatives like the adoption of the first female crash test dummy.  Most Americans do not want to trade in their current vehicle for a 1990s model.  We shouldn’t revert to a 1990s-era auto safety regulatory agency.   

The death and destruction on our nation’s roads is not an inevitability, but a choice. A choice to not treat traffic safety like the public health emergency it so clearly is. A choice to remain complacent.  A choice to accept the status quo.   

I contend that America should make a different choice: no more victims.  Let’s chart a course towards vision zero, in which there are no traffic fatalities or serious injuries.  And let’s ensure we equip NHTSA with the resources, staff, and authorities necessary to make that vision a reality.   

“America first” shouldn’t put product safety last

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By Daniel Greene, Senior Director of Consumer Protection & Product Safety Policy

Who wants “shock and awe” when plugging in an electronic device?  What parent wants a “chainsaw” to be taken to the institutions validating that toys are safe?  What senior wants to “dismantle” the safety net helping prevent falls and common injuries to the older Americans? 

The Trump Administration’s unprecedented assault on our bedrock federal institutions may undermine a key line of defense against dangerous products and household hazards: the Consumer Protection Safety Commission (CPSC).   

 The CPSC protects the public against unreasonable risks of injury or death from consumer products through education, safety standards, regulation, and enforcement. The agency is charged with regulating 15,000 types of consumer products.

During the Biden Administration, the CPSC finalized over fifty rules and standards, including banning crib bumpers and establishing standards for adult portable bed rails, mattress flammability, and infant sleep products.  In Fiscal Year 2024, the Commission actively facilitated the establishment of 26 voluntary safety standards and negotiated and implemented 333 recalls involving 41 million products. The CPSC submitted over 56,000 takedown requests to e-commerce platforms and sellers, resulting in more than 58,000 banned or previously recalled products being removed from such sites.  The agency conducted approximately 1,000 inspections, surveillance efforts, and recall effectiveness checks to ensure compliance with product safety law.   

In recent weeks, the Trump Administration has begun to execute an ambitious plan to reduce the size of government.  It’s curbed the authority of independent federal agencies like the CPSC, imposed spending freezes, and fired civil servants. Every federal agency is required to produce an Agency Reduction in Force and Reorganization Plan by March 13. Such plans must seek to achieve significant staff reductions, reduced budgets, and reduced real property footprint.

Efforts to dramatically reduce the CPSC’s resources, staff, and facilities could substantially diminish the Commission’s ability to carry out its mission: product safety.    

Product safety should be standard.  The norm, not the exception. Not a choice, but an expectation. 

After all, these are products we rely on – products we are in constant contact with, such as appliances, toys, furniture, electronics, clothing, and power tools. They’re in our living rooms, bedrooms, kitchens, and sheds.  They’re what we wear and where we sleep.  They’re used to cook and clean. They’re what our children play with.    

Safety cannot be assumed, however.  It must be established and maintained.  For in the product safety space, there is a dangerous safety paradox which may compel producers to put profits over people. 

Competitive pressures encourage producers to drive down prices by cutting corners and ignoring readily available safety features. After all, consumers are price sensitive. Twenty-five cents can make the difference between executing a sale and losing business to your competitor.   

Further, consumers assume that every product for sale is safe. They cannot readily identify risks associated with a particular product.  Consumers are completely at the mercy of representations made by the producers.  Consider this example.  Can we really expect the everyday furniture shopper to tell whether a dresser complies with tip-over standards?  Of course not.  Between 2013 and 2023, 217 deaths were attributed to furniture tip overs. Yet, it is nearly impossible to distinguish safe from unsafe furniture.  

In such an environment, safety can take a back seat to savings.   

Many manufacturers of table saws refuse to equip their devices with safety features that prevent or mitigate the severity of contact injuries. These manufacturers save a few hundred bucks per saw.  But nearly 50,000 consumers must seek medical treatment for table saw injuries each year, costing society $1.28 billion to $2.32 billion annually.  There are approximately 10 amputations a day that could be totally prevented with safe saw technology.   

Over one million crib bumpers were sold each year despite being attributed to 83 fatalities and 60 injuries. Manufacturers generated hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue from selling these products.  

Many manufacturers failed to meet voluntary safety standards for adult portable bed rails, resulting in 310 fatalities between 2003 and 2021. They saved $5.40 per unit.  

It’s a perilous race to the bottom that poses a clear and present danger to the American people.   

Approximately 49,000 product-related deaths and 34 million product-related injuries occur each year. These are not just statistics. These are lives cut short.  Livelihoods ruined.  Maimed breadwinners.  Injured children.   

Falls, fires, poisoning, and suffocation remain persistently high, accounting for four out of five deaths. Everyday product categories – such as stairs, ramps, beds, pillows, chairs, exercise equipment, bathtubs, and bicycles – are frequently involved. The young and the elderly are particularly vulnerable.

Consumer product incidents account for $1 trillion in costs to society each year, for medical bills, emergency services, lost productivity, insurance, workplace loss, legal costs, and property damage.  

And, of course, there are some costs that simply cannot be captured in dollars and cents. Clearly, the cost of care and loss of income of an injured breadwinner is measurable in dollars, but we cannot measure the psychological loss of their role as a provider.  

Prudent government intervention is necessary to address the unacceptable risk posed by harmful consumer products. The CPSC provides that prudent government intervention.   

This small agency with a large mission has delivered.  CPSC standards and enforcement activities have helped spur a 43 percent decline in residential fires, a 47 percent decrease in fire deaths, and a 41 percent reduction in fire injuries. Child poisonings have decreased by 80 percent.  Bicycle injuries dropped by 35 percent. Deaths from refrigerator door entrapments and garage door incidents have been virtually eliminated. Crib deaths have plummeted by 80 percent. Injuries associated with baby walkers have been slashed by 88 percent. Pool and pool equipment injury rates have decreased by 55 percent.

The results are clear.  The CPSC saves lives.  It protects the health and safety of the American people and creates clear rules of the road for manufacturers, retailers, and distributors.  It ensures that safety is engrained in the design and manufacturing of each product.  It gives industry a safe space to pursue their profit motive while fulfilling their obligation to protect customers. And through product recalls and enforcement it establishes a level playing field that ends the race to the bottom.  Thus, we must preserve the CPSC and ensure the agency has the appropriate tools, resources, and personnel to carry out its lifesaving mission.   

Guest blog: Trump’s executive orders could jeopardize immigrants’ health coverage

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By Mekdes Agezew, NCL Health Policy Spring Intern

As President Donald Trump begins his second term in office, he has signed a series of executive orders (EOs) aimed at reversing policies implemented by the Biden administration. In his first week alone, Trump revoked 78 of Biden’s executive orders and actions, impacting areas such as immigration, climate change, oil exploration, gender equality, federal diversity programs, and health care coverage.

<strong>Trump’s Immigration Policies and Their Impact on Health Care Access</strong>

One of President Trump’s executive orders expanded the power of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), to increase arrests and deportations of undocumented immigrants. As of February 3rd, DHS reports 5,693 deportations via X. and on February 6th the White House confirmed that 461 individuals arrested by ICE were released. Included in this is the removal of Colombian nationals via military planes on January 26, 2025. Colombian President Gustavo Petro initially resisted but ultimately conceded after threats of economic tariffs, and sent an aircraft of their own to pick up around 200 individuals being deported.

Although these deportation efforts primarily target undocumented immigrants, their effects extend to broader immigrant communities, including millions of U.S.-born children in mixed-status families. During Trump’s first term, restrictive immigration policies and increased enforcement created widespread fear, discouraging immigrant families from enrolling in healthcare programs such as Medicaid. The expanded “public charge” rule, later reversed, exacerbated these concerns by making immigrants fear that using public benefits could jeopardize their residency or citizenship applications. As of 2023, nearly three-quarters of immigrant adults, including nine in ten who are likely undocumented, reported uncertainty about using non-cash assistance due to fears of jeopardizing their immigration status.

During Trump’s first administration, which also increased immigration enforcement, KFF found that there was a decrease in health care use and participation in Medicaid and CHIP because of immigration-related fears. Now, with the Administration’s doubling down on a more forceful immigration agenda, fears are intensifying. His rollback of policies expanding Medicaid and ACA coverage, combined with rising enforcement actions, is expected to increase the number of uninsured immigrants and reduce participation in vital healthcare assistance programs.

<strong>Proposed Medicaid Funding Cuts and their Impact</strong>

Medicaid provides high-quality, affordable health care to Americans, including children, pregnant women, veterans, seniors, and low-income individuals. It covers essential services such as primary care, hospital stays, prescription drugs, and preventive care. While undocumented immigrants are ineligible for any federally funded coverage, lawfully present immigrants are often eligible, with a five-year waiting period. However, some states have expanded coverage by eliminating the waiting period.

Currently, the Trump administration is exploring ways to reduce federal spending and cut taxes, including cuts to Medicaid’s budget. On January 28, 2025, the White House issued a memo freezing federal loans and grants to review whether federally funded programs align with the Trump administration’s goals. This caused widespread confusion about Medicaid’s future, which was only exacerbated by reports from states that they were unable to access the systems used to draw down federal health dollars. Later, officials clarified that Medicaid—since it provides direct payments—was not included in the freeze. However, the program remains a target for Republican officials. House Republicans released a draft budget resolution on February 13 as part of their budget reconciliation strategy. With Medicaid being the largest program

overseen by the Energy and Commerce Committee; it is the primary plausible source for the minimum $880 billion cuts the Committee needs to find. Additionally, a bill was introduced within both chambers that would prohibit states from using Medicaid funding to provide healthcare benefits for illegal immigrants. If federal Medicaid funding is cut, states will be forced to either cover the costs themselves or scale back the program. States that choose to continue Medicaid may tighten eligibility requirements, reduce benefits, or limit enrollment, making healthcare access even more challenging for low-income and immigrant families. For instance, Idaho state Rep. Lori McCann states that if the state repeals its Medicaid expansion, more than 89,000 Idahoans could lose their coverage. Ultimately, this could increase the number of uninsured individuals and aggravate health disparities.

<strong>The Potential Impact of RFK Jr.’s Health Policies</strong>

On February 13, 2025, the Senate confirmed Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Secretary of Human Health Services (HHS). As an anti-vaccine zealot, Sec. Kennedy. continues to voice his opposition to childhood vaccine mandates and question the safety of all vaccines. Secretary Kennedy also staunchly opposes pharmaceutical companies and their influence. As Secretary, RFK Jr can influence Medicaid’s vaccine coverage policies, potentially limiting access to childhood immunizations and other preventative vaccines for millions of low-income and immigrant families.

We are already seeing the consequences of declining vaccination rates. For example, Texas is experiencing an outbreak of measles amongst youth, totaling 58 cases at the time of writing, with 13 people hospitalized. Measles spreads easily and quickly in unvaccinated children and adults. This outbreak is the worst seen in the US in 30 years. The US is also facing the worst flu season in 15 years with nearly 400,000 hospitalizations and 16,000 deaths from the flu as of February 8. Further restrictions to vaccine access would pose serious public health risks,

particularly for children who rely on Medicaid for immunizations against diseases such as measles and polio.

The Impact of Halting Lower Drug Prices and Expanded Health Coverage Former President Biden prioritized lowering prescription drug costs and expanding health coverage under ACA and Medicaid, which NCL supports. In January 2021, Biden’s Executive Order 14009 strengthened these programs, extending enrollment periods and allowing more individuals and families to access health care. And in October 2022, Biden further issued Executive Order 14087 to reduce prescription drug prices, addressing the skyrocketing costs that burden low-income families. Over a quarter of adults have difficulty affording their prescription medications, and over half of adults worry about being able to afford them. When looking at race/ethnicity, 61% of Black adults and nearly 70% of Hispanic adults report worrying about their ability to afford their medications. By revoking these initiatives, the Trump Administration puts the health of low-income and vulnerable immigrant families and the communities they reside in, at greater risk.

While Mr. Trump has yet to announce a comprehensive health care plan, his actions suggest a shift away from affordability and accessibility, leaving whole communities across the US at risk, and it won’t be only immigrant communities, though they suffer more than most.

<strong>Conclusion</strong>

By rescinding executive orders that expanded Medicaid, ACA coverage, and lowered drug prices, Trump is engaging in a reckless experiment that runs the risk of spreading illness and disease; in doing so, he and his HHS Secretary put all Americans at risk. While the consequences of this experiment will be felt by all, immigrant families and communities are expected to be hit even harder.

Nancy Glick

Preventing foodborne illness is worth the investment

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By Nancy Glick, Director of Food and Nutrition Policy

“We’re not going back” is a rallying cry not usually associated with food safety policy. But if the Trump Administration heeds the call from the trade association for the processed meat industry to withdraw a needed proposed food safety rule, Americans will indeed go back to facing preventable foodborne illness outbreaks. 

The rule in question – to allow USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) to establish standards that will keep Salmonella contaminated chicken carcasses and poultry parts from entering the market – comes at a time when Salmonella infections are on the rise in the U.S.  According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Salmonella bacteria cause over 1 million human infections in the United States each year, putting more Americans at risk for serious illness, including fever, bloody diarrhea, and sometimes life-threatening complications. Moreover, CDC estimates that foodborne Salmonella causes 29 illnesses for each case that is detected – meaning significantly more people are getting sick than records show.  

The National Consumers League (NCL), as part of the Safe Food Coalition, praised FSIS for issuing the proposed rule in January 2025, as did many public health and medical societies. Why? One reason is because chicken is a major source of illness from Salmonella, causing an estimated 195,634 illnesses each year at a cost of $2.8 billion annually, according to Consumer Reports. In fact, CDC estimates that about one in every 25 packages of chicken at the grocery story are contaminated with Salmonella.  

The other reason is the good news. Today, advances in technology make it possible for inspectors to rapidly detect and mitigate Salmonella and other foodborne pathogens throughout the poultry supply chain. Thus, the FSIS rule is predicated on new technologies for early detection of foodborne bacteria.  

But, the Meat Institute, speaking for the $227.9 billion meat and poultry processing industry, has asked the Trump Administration to withdraw the rule as a way to reduce “burdensome” regulations. The group says the new FSIS rule, which was three years in the making, will “add cost to the production and supply of food, exacerbating food price inflation to the detriment of consumers.”  

However, NCL actually speaks for consumers, and we challenge this position. Polls show that Americans favor stronger food safety oversight. In a 2022 survey, 74 percent said it would be worth a 1 to 3 percent increase in the cost of food to pay for added safety measures.  

Moreover, Americans recognize that foodborne illness has widespread consequences, both in terms of people’s lives and costs to society. Starting with the human toll, CDC estimates that 48 million people get sick, 128,000 are hospitalized and 3,000 people die each year from foodborne diseases. In terms of the cost to the economy, a study by researchers from USDA’s Economic Research Service puts the cost to the economy at $75 billion (in 2023 dollars) annually, which includes medical care, lost productivity, and premature deaths, including those associated with secondary chronic illnesses.   

For all these reasons, Americans are not willing to give up food safety protections for the possibility of saving a few pennies when buying poultry products. Instead, consumers – along with public health officials and infectious disease specialists – are calling on the Trump Administration to finalize enforceable safety standards for poultry products as part of the new “Make America Healthy Again” initiative because the FSIS rule will result in safer food and fewer illnesses.