Search
Advertisement
| Digg | Facebook | E-mail | Print
Mar 18, 2008 6:44 pm US/Central

I-TEAM: Minneapolis Boy's Death Leads To $1M Fine

Reporting
Terri Gruca
(WCCO) The Government slapped Reebok with a $1 million fine, the biggest penalty ever issued against a company for failing to abide by the Federal Hazardous Substances Act. That requires companies to label products as hazardous if they could potentially harm people.

The fine stems from a silver charm attached to a bracelet Reebok included with some shoes. The charm was filled with lead.

Two years ago, Jarnell Brown from Minneapolis died after he accidentally swallowed it.

As grateful as his mom is to hear this news, this is still tough for her because no amount of money will ever bring back her son.

"You wouldn't think that your child would be dead," said Juanna Graham.

Graham's son would have been 6-years-old this year.

She reached a settlement with Reebok last year, the details of which she is not allowed to share. However she did want to talk about Tuesday's developments and the fact that Reebok agreed to pay the $1 million fine.

"I'm thankful that more kids will live because of the steps that they're taking," said Graham. "But you need to be careful what you buy your kids."

The Consumer Product Safety Commission said the fine sends a message to companies that the U.S. will not allow them to import products that are not tested and that may be dangerous to children.

"I cannot put myself in the place of a mother who has lost their child," said Nancy Nord, CPSC Chairwoman. "What I can do is to commit to make sure that we do everything we can to keep defective and unsafe products off store shelves and out of consumers' hands."

Reebok agreed to pay this fine Tuesday but denied it violated any federal law. That's because there is no regulation on how much lead is allowed in kids products. It's something the CPSC is trying to change but it will take years to make that happen.

Since 1977 the CPSC has fined 233 companies nearly $59 million for various violations. That money goes to the Department of Treasury.

You can see the I-TEAM's original lead jewelry story here and the original story on Jarnell here.

(© MMVIII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

From Our Partners

Video

You need the latest Flash player to view video content.
Click here to download.

Click here to bypass this detection if you already have the latest Flash Player.

I-TEAM

Top News Stories

Advertisement

© MMVIII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.