Stop Toxic Imports Blog

Children pointed, tourists snapped photos, and Washington D.C. office workers on lunch break stopped to stare as the gargantuan “Toxic Trader” puppet lurched down Pennsylvania Avenue today past the White House on its way to the Bush administration-backed Import Safety Summit.

Toxic Trader invades DC With a motorcycle police escort, the United Steelworkers’ “Toxic Trader” puppet lurched down Pennsylvania Avenue, past the White House, on his way to the Grand Hyatt Hotel on H Street in Washington, D.C. on July 9. That is where the Bush administration-backed Import Safety Summit was being conducted by industry leaders and lobbyists who proposed self-instituting standards for safety rather that face government-imposed inspections and regulations to ensure products shipped into this country don’t maim and injure consumers. On the sidewalk, just outside the Summit, three red-caped Toxic Avengers slew the evil puppet and saved the world. That was the point of the USW’s street theater production, which travels the country to protest unfair trade and so-called free trade deals that export jobs and flood our shores with unsafe imports, from tainted fish to deadly dog food.

Over the past year, American parents rebuffed foreign-made toys when they contained leaded paint, poisonous cadmium beads or the “date rape” drug. These toxic toys created a scandal as it became clear that the Bush administration’s deliberately stripped down Consumer Product Safety Commission was not protecting American children and families from dangerous imports. Republicans eschew government regulation, but its absence has allowed our supermarkets to sell us imported tainted toothpaste and deadly dog food.

The United Steelworkers released the results of a study showing exactly how toxic trade kills unsuspecting American consumers during a teleconference call today at 10:15 a.m.