Safety agency slow to publicize hazards: report

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. consumer safety regulators typically take almost seven months to inform the public of dangerous products in cases where the manufacturers were fined for not promptly reporting the defect, watchdog group Public Citizen said on Thursday.

Companies that were fined for not timely reporting hazards took an average of 2.7 years to notify the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) of the problems, according to a report issued by the nonprofit group.

"Companies don't appear to take the disclosure law very seriously," Joan Claybrook, president of Public Citizen, told reporters. "Meanwhile the CPSC's turnaround time for informing the public is far too long."

The government safety agency did not return calls seeking comment on the report.

Public Citizen studied 46 cases since 2002 in which the CPSC fined companies for violating federal laws that require promptly notifying the CPSC when a safety defect is found.

A spokesman for the National Association of Manufacturers said the report was misleading and only studied about 2 percent of the overall number of CPSC recalls.

The CPSC has been a target of criticism following recalls of millions of lead-tainted toys in 2007, many made in China. Some U.S. lawmakers say the agency is woefully underfunded and lacks the staff to keep unsafe products off U.S. shelves.

In December, the House of Representatives unanimously approved legislation that would nearly eliminate lead in toys and boost funding and enforcement power at the agency. Similar legislation is moving through the Senate and awaiting floor action.

Public Citizen said it did not have an overall average of how long it takes the CPSC to inform the public of dangerous products because that information is not released. But it said the agency's slow response to the particularly egregious cases studied in the report is insightful.

The recalled products studied included vacuum cleaners prone to catching fire in "off" mode, treadmills that spontaneously accelerated to an Olympic miler's pace, all-terrain vehicles with throttles that got stuck in the "go" position, and infant swings that were linked to six deaths.

Public Citizen said the CPSC is hamstrung by current laws that say the agency cannot disclose information about dangerous products without court approval or manufacturer agreement.

"One major cause of delay is the manufacturers' ability to sue the agency to block public disclosure of information about hazards," the report said. "The mere threat of lawsuits deters the agency from acting."

(Editing by Tim Dobbyn)