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PROTECTING CONSUMER SAFETY—Toys should not be toxic or dangerous for children to play with. Our food should not make us sick. The terms for banking and credit accounts should be clear and easy to understand.

LOOKING OUT FOR CONSUMERS

Georgia PIRG’s consumer program works to alert the public to hidden dangers and scams and to ban anti-consumer practices and unsafe products.

TROUBLE IN TOYLAND

For 27 years, Georgia PIRG’s "Trouble In Toyland" report has surveyed store shelves and identified choking hazards, noise hazards and other dangers. Our report has led to at least 150 recalls and other regulatory actions over the years.

Get our tips for buying safer toys.

BIGGER BANKS, BIGGER FEES

In April, Georgia PIRG released a report in which we surveyed more than 350 bank branches and revealed that fewer than half of branches obeyed their legal duty to fully disclose fees to prospective customers, while one in four provided no fee information at all. We also found that despite widespread stories about the “death” of free checking, free and low-cost checking choices are still widely available, if consumers shop around.

Find out how to beat high bank fees.

SEE ALL CONSUMER RESOURCES

Issue updates

Report | Consumer Protection

Trouble in Toyland

The 2011 Trouble in Toyland report is our 26th annual survey of toy safety. In this report, we provide safety guidelines for consumers when purchasing toys for young children and provide examples of toys currently on store shelves that may pose potential safety hazards.

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Blog Post | Consumer Protection

Trouble In Toyland | Jessica Wilson

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Report | Georgia PIRG Education Fund | Consumer Protection

Tax-Increment Financing

Local and state governments use various tools to encourage  development in economically challenged areas. Tax-increment financing (TIF) has been a leading tool used for this purpose. TIF allows cities and towns to borrow against an area’s future tax revenues in order to invest in immediate projects or encourage present development. When used properly, TIF can promote enduring growth and stronger communities.  When used improperly, however, TIF can waste taxpayer resources or channel money to politically favored special interests.

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News Release | Georgia PIRG Education Funda | Consumer Protection

New Report Shows Problems with Widely Used Local Economic Development Tool

Forty nine states have legalized tax-increment financing deals or “TIFs” in 49 states.  "If done badly, tax-increment financing can steer development away from the places that most need it."

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News Release | Georgia PIRG Education Fund | Consumer Protection

Consumer Group Alerts Shoppers to Hidden Toy Hazards

Hazardous toys are still sold in stores across the country, despite a new law overhauling the nation’s product safety watchdog agency

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News Release | Georgia PIRG Education Fund | Consumer Protection

Georgia PIRG Alerts Shoppers to Hidden Toy Hazards

According to the most recent data from the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), toy-related injuries sent almost 73,000 children under the age of five to emergency rooms in 2005. Twenty children died from toy-related injuries that year.

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News Release | Georgia PIRG | Consumer Protection

Statement of U.S. PIRG Consumer Program Director Ed Mierzwinski on Latest Mattel/China Recall

9 million toys tainted with lead paint or dangerous small magnets.

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Report | Georgia PIRG Education Fund | Consumer Protection

Comprehensive Tobacco Control Funding for the State of Georgia

If current patterns of smoking are not reduced in Georgia, CDC has projected that 184,000 youth currently aged 0-17 in the state will die prematurely from smoking.1,2  Each year, over 10,000 Georgians die from a tobacco-related death, resulting in more than 183,000 years of life lost which costs the state over $3.3 billion in lost productivity.

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Report | Georgia PIRG Education Fund | Consumer Protection

Total Recall

The year 2007 was called the year of the recall. But in 2008, recalls are up, according to Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) data. Already, as these data show, more toys and children’s products have been recalled in the first half of this year than in the first half of last year, a supposed “100-year-flood” period. Yet the remedial CPSC reform legislation passed overwhelmingly by both the House and Senate in response to that 2007 recall wave has yet to become law.

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Report | Georgia PIRG Education Fund | Consumer Protection

Trouble in Toyland

For several years, we have reported that toys are safer than ever before, thanks to decades of work by product safety advocates and parents and the leadership of Congress, state legislatures and the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). Yet, as many have noted, 2007 has been described as the “year of the recall.” Millions of toys, including famous playthings like Thomas the Tank Engine and Barbie, have been recalled in 2007. Many of these toys have been from leading manufacturers like Mattel, and most were imported from China.

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Report | Environment California | Consumer Protection

Toxic Baby Bottles

Products marketed for infants and children are not always completely safe for their use. Many contain toxic chemicals that may have detrimental health impacts for children exposed during critical stages of development. In this report, we analyze the extent to which five popular brands of baby bottles leach bisphenol A, a developmental, neural, and reproductive toxicant, into liquids coming into contact with them.  We found that all five brands leach bisphenol A at dangerous levels found to cause harm in numerous laboratory animal studies.

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Report | Georgia PIRG Education Fund | Consumer Protection

Trouble In Toyland

Toys are safer than ever before, thanks to decades of work by product safety advocates and parents and the leadership of Congress, state legislatures and the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). Nevertheless, as parents venture into crowded malls this holiday season, they should remain vigilant about often hidden hazards posed by toys on store shelves.

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Tools & Resources

TOY SAFETY TIPS ON-THE-GO

From toxic chemicals to choking hazards to dangerous magnets, see what dangerous toys to watch out for while you shop.

TOYSAFETY.MOBI

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