Posted on 05/26/2006 11:25:38 AM PDT by CedarDave
Passing a federal law to help prevent kids and animals from drinking deadly antifreeze could prove tougher than Rep. Heather Wilson (R-NM) expected.
Wilson is trying to convince her House colleagues to approve a federal version of New Mexico's Scooby's Law, but she met with stiff resistance over environmental and liability concerns in a House subcommittee this week.
Scooby's Law, named after a golden retriever who died in Bernalillo after drinking antifreeze in 2003, would force antifreeze manufacturers to add a bittering agent that discourages animals and young children from drinking the liquid.
The federal bill Wilson has co-sponsored is similar to New Mexico's law, but critics— including Gov. Bill Richardson's office— contend that subtle, but important, differences exist...
Scooby's Law passed the New Mexico Legislature last year with broad bipartisan support. But this week in Congress, some Democrats raised environmental questions about denatonium benzoate, the bittering agent required for inclusion in antifreeze under the federal proposal.
Meanwhile, Gov. Bill Richardson, who endorsed the federal bill in a letter to the House Energy and Commerce Committee chairman earlier this year, has since changed his mind.
[Wilson] pointed out that the bittering additive is already in hundreds of household products and has not been identified as a culprit in any environmental damage. "The risk is quite low in this case for the additive because it's been used for 45 years in hundreds of consumer products," she said in an interview this week.
Wilson said in an interview she suspects trial lawyers are driving the new objections to the bill. "The trial lawyers want to be able to sue everybody for everything ... so they have multiple deep pockets to go to," Wilson said. "I just don't agree with that as a public policy."
(Excerpt) Read more at abqjournal.com ...
So what will the feds do when kids & dogs *still* drink the stuff? Make them come up with a solution that isn't harmful?
Solution, oh no, then you couldnt sue anyone.
Why does this lady think the federal government should be regulating the taste of anti-freeze? Here's an idea, be a responsible pet owner and keep your pet away from poison. It is not Prestone's job to take care of Scooby.
now they want a law against accidents....
how much are they paid again?
Of course tightly closing the jug and putting it out of reach of dogs and kids would be too much to expect from parents.
I had a relative who drank some to get sympathy. Without going into detail, the world would have be much better off if he'd just taken a couple more swigs.
Something that is deadly and tastes good to man's best friend, and it takes this long to add a prevenative measure? How much does it cost to make something taste bad? (insert the wife's a bad cook joke here.)
How bad does this lady think anti-freeze should taste? Dog's spend all day licking their own asses. What could possibly taste worse than that?
How bad does this lady think anti-freeze should taste? Dog's spend all day licking their own arses. What could possibly taste worse than that?
If not, some manufacturer should try selling antifreeze made that way with a profitable markup and see if there are enough people out there who think it's a significant issue to make it profitable.
I have a hard time believing that there are a significant number of deaths of people or animals from accidentally consuming antifreeze. It's hardly the only common item that's poisonous.
There may be people who have used it to poison other people's pets, but making antifreeze taste bad simply removes antifreeze as one of many, many common things they could poison them with.
Is there really a significant need for this law, or is it just another of the many mostly useless laws our government debates and often passes just to act like they do something?
Animals lap it up off the ground, from radiator overflow or leakage. On a hot summer day you can be standing holding the leash talking to someone and discover that your pet is drinking from a pool next to the curb between two cars. And even if you are careful, and NEVER forget to recap antifreeze tightly, are you sure the parents of the neighbor you child plays with are as watchful - seeing them sentenced to jail for stupidity won't bring your son or daughter back form the grave.
One ounce per pound of body weight is deadly - a small crumb of chocolate cake is not. If I ate an ounce of chocolate for each pound of my body weight, I'd probably die too. But I'd die happy.
Just have my wife make the anti-freeze. Guaranteed to taste like crap. Problem solved.
I agree legislation isn't required here.
My dog had to be taught that it was unacceptable to help herself to all the tootsie rolls in the cat box. But you can throw an entire hamburger into her mouth - she'll gulp it down and spit out the pickles.
And it's funny you say that about what they won't eat. My buddy had this stuff call Phooey! that he was supposed to spray on what he didn't want the dog would chew. - His dog would actually run over to lick the stuff up - she loved it.
I thought it would be funny to taste it myself. It wasn't. (to me at least, but my buddy thought it was exceeding funny.)
exceeding=exceedingly
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