WASHINGTON — Nobody knew what was wrong with 20-month-old Jacob Esses when he collapsed in October at his family's Arkansas home and vomited colorful little beads.
"I was flailing," his mother Shelby Esses said, recalling the terrifying day doctors tried to revive her toddler while she frantically looked for information about the toy he had eaten. "There were no answers anywhere."
Today, Jacob is fine. The toy, a children's craft kit called Aqua Dots, has been recalled after it was discovered the beads contained a chemical that metabolizes into the so-called date-rape drug.
But Esses has joined parents, consumer groups and lawmakers to push for an Internet database where consumers could post complaints and search for comments about potentially dangerous products, such as Aqua Dots.
Industry groups are vigorously fighting the proposal, arguing such a database would do little to help consumers and would force companies to disclose trade secrets. "There is no filter," said Ed Krenik, a lobbyist for the power tools industry.
The dispute over the database is at the center of this week's debate in the Senate over how to strengthen the Consumer Product Safety Commission's oversight of some 15,000 types of consumer products.
The push to overhaul the federal agency comes after a year of toy recalls during which millions of playthings were found to contain elevated levels of lead paint, dangerous magnets or other hazards.
In the case of several products, parents had been complaining to the agency about potential problems for months before manufacturers and retailers agreed to recalls. But regulators issued no public warnings while they investigated the claims and conferred with company officials about whether a recall was needed.
Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.), who is pushing a bill to overhaul the safety commission, notes that products can remain on shelves for months while agency officials review complaints. "Parents really have no way of knowing that these are dangerous," he said.
Pryor has proposed that the commission collect complaints from consumers, as well as from hospitals, firefighters and others who may find potentially hazardous products, then post the complaints on an Internet database that anyone could search.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which regulates vehicles, auto parts and car seats, has been making consumer complaints available almost since its inception in the mid-1960s. It has maintained that information online for more than a decade at www.safercar.gov.
