Government safety agency criticized for delayed consumer warnings

By PAUL WENSKE, The Kansas City Star

The federal agency charged with protecting U.S. consumers lacks the muscle and money to make companies quickly own up to life-threatening product defects, according to a new study.

Public Citizen, a leading consumer advocacy group, said Thursday that companies fined by the Consumer Product Safety Commission took an average of 2.7 years to report serious safety defects they knew about — even though they are supposed to “immediately” alert the agency of risks to the public.