Proof that Government Regulation is needed to make Corpration’s products safe for consumers?

Question by I VOTE: Proof that Government Regulation is needed to make Corpration’s products safe for consumers?

The cars roll endlessly off the local assembly lines of the industry’s biggest automakers, more than 10,000 a day, into the eager hands of Brazil’s new middle class. The shiny new Fords, Fiats, and Chevrolets tell the tale of an economy in full bloom that now boasts the fourth largest auto market in the world.

What happens once those vehicles hit the streets, however, is shaping up as a national tragedy, experts say, with thousands of Brazilians dying every year in auto accidents that in many cases shouldn’t have proven fatal.

The culprits are the cars themselves, produced with weaker welds, scant safety features and inferior materials compared to similar models manufactured for U.S. and European consumers, say experts and engineers inside the industry.

Brazilian death rate from passenger car accidents that is nearly four times that of the United States.

The country’s few safety activists perceive a deadly double standard, with automakers earning more money from selling cars that offer drivers fewer safeguards.

“The manufacturers do this because the cars are a little cheaper to make and the demands of the Brazilian consumers are less; their knowledge of safety issues is lower than in Europe or the U.S.”

Manufacturers earn a 10 percent profit on Brazilian-made cars, compared with 3 percent in the U.S. and a global average of 5 percent, according to IHS Automotive, an industry consulting firm.

Only next year will laws require frontal air bags and anti-lock braking systems on all cars, safety features that have been standard in industrial countries for years.

An engineer for a major U.S. automaker, speaking only on condition of anonymity for fear of losing his job, said he has watched for years as his company failed to implement more advanced safety features in Brazil, simply because the law did not require them.

“”The automakers are pleased to make more profitable cars for countries where the demands, whatever they may be, are less rigorous,” he said. “It happens everywhere — India, China and Russia, for example.”

The dangers come down to basics, engineers said: the lack of body reinforcements, lower-quality steel in car bodies, weaker or fewer weld spots to hold the vehicles together and car platforms designed decades before modern safety advances.

Over the years Ward said he has watched the same battles play out over auto safety — the only thing that changes is the location.

“The sad thing is, this has been the experience in the 1960s in the U.S., in the 1990s in Europe and now in Latin America,” Ward said. “The industry does the least it can get away with until they’re forced to do something different. It’s maddening.”

http://autos.yahoo.com/news/ap-impact-cars-made-brazil-191853931.html

Why don’t Corporations voluntary make cars that are more safer evev after there is demand for it???

Best answer:

Answer by Progress
If there were no regulations forbidding toxic dumping, the Koch Brothers and most other polluters would be having a field day. Say goodbye to your ground water.

Even WITH REGULATIONS, companies like BP had over 500 safety violations. Then they killed a dozen men and ruined an ecosystem.

We need rules. Plain and simple. Without them, the greedy, and the criminal, will take advantage of good people every time.

Bush deregulated Wall STreet – which led to the Great Recession in 2008.

Give your answer to this question below!

What role does the government have in protecting people from themselves in regards to consumer products.?

Question by Twixey: What role does the government have in protecting people from themselves in regards to consumer products.?

Best answer:

Answer by John
they can deem toys(for example) dangerous and take them off the shelves

Know better? Leave your own answer in the comments!

Papantonio Government Liable for New Orleans Levee Failure – PT. 1 2

uploaded with File Uploader (z-o-o-m.eu)

Video Rating: 0 / 5

Boston bred boxer’s son, Randy Frechette – internationally known as”FRENCHY” – emerged from humble beginnings to become one of New Orleans’ most celebrated a…

Q&A: Should the government legislate the size and shape of a hot dog?

Question by The Fed Up Matthew™: Should the government legislate the size and shape of a hot dog?

Yes this is a serious question believe it or not.

******************************************************************
Pediatricians call for a choke-proof hot dog

Nutritionists have long warned of the perils of hot dogs: fat, sodium and preservatives to name a few.

Now, the American Academy of Pediatrics wants foods like hot dogs to come with a warning label — not because of their nutritional risks but because they pose a choking hazard to babies and children.

Better yet, the academy would like to see foods such as hot dogs “redesigned” so their size, shape and texture make them less likely to lodge in a youngster’s throat. More than 10,000 children under 14 go to the emergency room each year after choking on food, and up to 77 die, says the new policy statement, published online today in Pediatrics. About 17% of food-related asphyxiations are caused by hot dogs.

“If you were to take the best engineers in the world and try to design the perfect plug for a child’s airway, it would be a hot dog,” says statement author Gary Smith, director of the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. “I’m a pediatric emergency doctor, and to try to get them out once they’re wedged in, it’s almost impossible.”

The Consumer Product Safety Commission requires labels on toys with small parts alerting people not to give them to kids under 3. Yet there are no required warnings on food, though more than half of non-fatal choking episodes involve food, Smith says.

“No parents can watch all of their kids 100% of the time,” Smith says. “The best way to protect kids is to design these risks out of existence.”

Though Smith says he doesn’t know exactly how someone would redesign a hot dog, he’s certain that some savvy inventor will find a way.

Janet Riley, president of the National Hot Dog & Sausage Council, supports the academy’s call to better educate parents and caregivers about choking prevention. “Ensuring the safety of the foods we service to children is critically important for us,” Riley says.

But Riley questions whether warning labels are needed. She notes that more than half of hot dogs sold in stores already have choking-prevention tips on their packages, advising parents to cut them into small pieces. “As a mother who has fed toddlers cylindrical foods like grapes, bananas, hot dogs and carrots, I ‘redesigned’ them in my kitchen by cutting them with a paring knife until my children were old enough to manage on their own,” Riley says.

The Food and Drug Administration, which has authority to recall products it considers “unfit for food,” plans to review the new statement, spokeswoman Rita Chappelle says.

Given the health risks of obesity, pediatrician Alan Greene, author of Feeding Baby Green, says, “The last thing we need is to redesign candy and junk food with cool shapes, so we can give them to kids even younger.”

http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2010-02-22-1Achoke22_ST_N.htm

Best answer:

Answer by Bergit O
Ohhh that is the wurst – you brat! Ha ha!

Actually, it is despicable that a country who has the finest foods in the world resorts to eating crap and becomes a nation of fat, out of shape people.

Add your own answer in the comments!

Q&A: who thinks the government should be allowed to tax religious estabalishments?

Question by cosi: who thinks the government should be allowed to tax religious estabalishments?

they do have incomes and there are tax write offs for donations of sorts and they are succeptable. they offer a product, market it, and defend product recalls in court (ie. child molesting priests) that its consumers buy with the belief that those actions are not part of the package that they give money to. if merck had said vioxx will kill half of you and help the other half and where allowed to continue to stock shelves with their product, they would face unsurmountable taxations where they would no longer find it profitable to continue producing the drug.

Best answer:

Answer by sexie1949
when we are taxed i do belive everyone even all religious should be taxed. even the people who are not from our country that come here should be taxed. that way we wouldn’t be in the red for our country at any time !

What do you think? Answer below!

Should Louisiana residents flooded by the levee failures be made whole by the Federal Government?

Question by Cheetos Rule: Should Louisiana residents flooded by the levee failures be made whole by the Federal Government?

Best answer:

Answer by boris
Many innocent people died because they were deliberatly not helped. Food and water was deliberatly refused. Basically, FEMA created the failures – the network was in place to help people, FEMA disturbed that helping process to turn a crisis into a catastrophe.

What do you think? Answer below!

Have government recalls gone too far?

Question by Greg: Have government recalls gone too far?

The United States Consumer Product Safety Commission is recalling 50 million blinds after reports that the cords can strangle children entangled in them.
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/ConsumerNews/50-million-blinds-recall-child-deaths/story?id=9336171&page=2

Ok. Now I’m all for recalling vehicles or machinery that have obvious mechanical such as shown in that article (“Toyota Motor Corp. announced earlier this month a 4 million-car recall of Lexus and Toyota vehicles for sudden acceleration.”) But blinds because they have lifting loops? Come on.

The article states that 8 children have died and 16 others “nearly strangled”. It is very sad that 8 children have died…no doubt, but ok…16 were “nearly strangled”? I don’t buy that one. That’s like “Oh my child NEARLY drank drano.

What has this country become where the government is the nanny for everyone? Are regulations necessary? Yes, of course, but I think it’s gone way too far. I mean what is next? Trash bags, yard rakes, garden hoses, phone cords? Gees.

Here’s my solution….watch your kids a little closer. I watch mine all the time and if they are that young to get themselves tangled in a blind cord…they don’t need to be out of your sight for more than a minute. I mean, where are the parents?

The complete government nanny state. So what do you think?
Apple Bottoms: You miss the whole point. As someone said, yes a notice is good…but a recall? Regulate everything….because everything and anything can be “deadly” if the right circumstances arise. Just put a helmet on your kids 24 hours a day…you know…just to be safe. Gee wiz.
Snowcone: Excellent answer. My whole point. Yes, people then used to use something called COMMON SENSE. lol

Best answer:

Answer by Forget War Buy More
I walk in on my child entangled in a blind. They aren’t dead, but they are cyanotic. That’s nearly strangled.

The recalls aren’t mandatory. If you like the blinds–keep em.

Know better? Leave your own answer in the comments!