Topic: Ross Clothing Store Fined $3.9 Million For Selling Drawstring Clothes

[Pandora]

This one just kills me .........

It’s not illegal to sell clothing with drawstrings.

So, what did Ross Clothing Store do wrong?  They didn’t tell the Consumer Product Safety Commission that they were.  So, they were fined almost $4 Million.

According to the Washington Free Beacon,

    The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) wanted to send a “message” by fining a department store almost $4 million after they failed to “report immediately” to the federal government that they were selling children’s clothing with drawstrings.

    Ross Stores, Inc. settled with the agency in June, agreeing to pay a $3.9 million civil penalty after they “knowingly failed to report to CPSC immediately, as required by federal law, that it sold or held for sale, about 23,000 children’s upper outerwear garments with drawstrings at the neck or waist.”

    The company said it settled to avoid costly litigation and denies violating a guideline to report children’s clothing with drawstrings to the CPSC, which the commission contends is hazardous. According to the commission, drawstrings have been responsible for 26 deaths.

[Libertas]

Guns don't kill...no wait wait, clothes don't...er...clothes kill people?

Ban clothes!

Everbody nekked!

Wait, uhh...everybody nekked?  Oh crap...!!!

 

[John Florida]

 Thank god the government is there to keep me from killing myself!

[IronDioPriest]

26 deaths over _________ years? That's kind of a crucial fact they're leaving out, isn't it? If drawstrings were jumping out and killing 26 kids per month or even per year, then maybe the Nanny would have to step in. If it's 26 kids total in recorded history - which is what I suspect - then this is nothing but control and shakedown. Which, of course, fits the MO.

[Glock32]

they failed to “report immediately” to the federal government

Think for a moment about that. Then think for another moment about just how often some variation of that is uttered, about this or that mundane thing.  This is where market economics can work against us, because when you have investors, shareholders, executive boards, it pretty much kills any possibility of someone taking a principled stand on anything. Prevents Going Galt from being more of a phenomenon, because shareholders won't allow it.

It would be gratifying to see some business say "You know what? F**k all this." and close down. Take the money and run. Tell them you'll be enjoying the rest of your natural life sipping umbrella drinks in the Caribbean, and good luck with your hyperregulated country.

[Pandora]

This has got to stop.  Or be stopped.  And since it appears no one has the gonads to stop it, it will stop of its own accord.  That which cannot be sustained, won't be.  The damage, however, will have been done because there's so much of it, in every level of government.  I cannot imagine how it can all be peaceably dismantled.  A Gordian Knot can't be untied, it must be sliced away.

[Weisshaupt]

26 deaths over _________ years? That's kind of a crucial fact they're leaving out, isn't it? If drawstrings were jumping out and killing 26 kids per month or even per year, then maybe the Nanny would have to step in. If it's 26 kids total in recorded history - which is what I suspect - then this is nothing but control and shakedown. Which, of course, fits the MO.

CPSC staff is aware of 18 deaths and 38 non-fatal incidents associated with neck/hood drawstrings on children's outerwear between January 1985 and September 2009 involving children 18 months to 10 years of age. Of these, the most common incident scenarios involved drawstrings getting entangled on playground slides.

26 seems to be the result of a study that apparently 50 kids lives were somehow saved.. when the death toll over decades was less than half that - because it didn't happen as often under the restrictions.. of course it barely happened before.  Lets see chance of anyone being struck by lightening in the US is  1 in 500,000 in a given year.  Basically one Kid a year had this happen to them, and about 20% of the US population is under 14 , so around 60,000,00 kids. so that suggests that before this regulation you had a 1 in 60 Million chance of this happening to you. Granted if you didn't use a drawstring that chance is zero, - so say only 10% the kids wore clothes with drawstrings 10% of the time.  Hooray, now its one in 6 Million.  Still better chances than of winning the lottery. (1 in 176 Million) but hey lets treat it like the major public  health hazard it is.

From 1985 through 1995, the government-backed U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) tallied 17 drawstring-related deaths and 42 non-fatal injuries in children 14 years old and younger.... Overall, the researchers found 29 children's deaths were blamed on drawstrings between 1985 and 2009.

Of those deaths, 21 were blamed on drawstrings near a child's neck and all but one were in children younger than eight years old, the researchers report in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.

The other eight deaths were blamed on drawstrings near a child's waist and occurred in kids between the ages of seven and 14 years old. All but one of these cases, "occurred after drawstrings were entangled in school bus doors or handrails," the researchers write. "All (seven) children were dragged and, in most cases, crushed under the buses' wheels."

Apparently because the Bus Drivers were on Crack. 

The vast majority of the documented deaths happened prior to 1997 - the year the clothing industry adopted the restrictions.

Between 1997 and the end of the study in 2009, there were six recorded deaths blamed on drawstrings.

The researchers say that works out to a 91 percent decrease in deaths after the restrictions were put in place, and based on that figure, they project that about 50 children's lives have been saved during the 12-year study period.

Yeah, with a sample size of under 30.  Yeah, I am sure the 91% stat has error bars right?  No?  Your "study" has larger numbers because you found reports the CPSC didn't have? Or did you just double count some of the events?  Uh, maybe.  Did you manage to  Justify your phony baloney job and taxpayer paid grant?  Sure did.

[benb61]

This one just kills me .........

It’s not illegal to sell clothing with drawstrings.

So, what did Ross Clothing Store do wrong?  They didn’t tell the Consumer Product Safety Commission that they were.  So, they were fined almost $4 Million.

According to the Washington Free Beacon,

    The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) wanted to send a “message” by fining a department store almost $4 million after they failed to “report immediately” to the federal government that they were selling children’s clothing with drawstrings.

    Ross Stores, Inc. settled with the agency in June, agreeing to pay a $3.9 million civil penalty after they “knowingly failed to report to CPSC immediately, as required by federal law, that it sold or held for sale, about 23,000 children’s upper outerwear garments with drawstrings at the neck or waist.”

    The company said it settled to avoid costly litigation and denies violating a guideline to report children’s clothing with drawstrings to the CPSC, which the commission contends is hazardous. According to the commission, drawstrings have been responsible for 26 deaths.

In order for Ross to pay the fine with the sale of these items they would need to charge $169.57 per item.  Seems to me that maybe they should not have even considered to carry these drawstring cloths.

[Pandora]

Oh?  Is that the solution?  Don't do nuttin' that may, might, maybe get you in trouble with the gummint?  Screw that.

[Libertas]

Aim to misbehave...beat them to the punch I say!