REMARKS
Gale A. Brewer on Addressing Lithium Ion Battery Risks in NYC
0:18:38
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119 sec
Council Member Gale A. Brewer discusses the risks of lithium ion batteries in New York City, including a recent deadly fire incident.
- Brewer discusses the dangers of lithium ion batteries, noting a recent fire that resulted in one death and 22 injuries.
- She advocates for Local Law 19a, which would require retailers to provide safety information to prevent improper battery use and impose fines for non-compliance.
- Her remarks support federal legislative efforts to establish mandatory safety standards for batteries.
- Additionally, Brewer outlines Local Law 21, which involves enforcement by the Fire Department and the Department of Consumer And Worker Protection to ensure retailer compliance.
- The focus is on preventing future fires and promoting the use of certified batteries, especially among delivery workers.
Gale A. Brewer
0:18:38
Thank you very much.
0:18:39
I wanna thank the speaker and everyone who's been working on the battery issue quite some time.
0:18:44
We know that just this last Friday, there was a lithium ion battery fire that killed 1, a journalism student as you heard, injured 22.
0:18:54
It's the 31st blaze caused by these batteries of this year, 18 killed last year and 200 fires.
0:19:02
What local 19a would do would basically tell retailers who have this these batteries in their portfolio to post information that talks about no mixing and matching of batteries.
0:19:16
And if you don't do it, you will be fined.
0:19:19
We still need our federal partners.
0:19:21
I wanna say that we thank majority leader Schumer, Senator Gillibrand, and Congress and Torres because they've all introduced a legislation to give the Consumer Product Safety Commission a directive to create federal mandatory standards so that we have batteries that are all certified, but that has not happened.
0:19:42
Control 21, would talk specifically also about the stores.
0:19:48
It would mandate that both fire department and the Department of Consumer And Worker Protection, Both Together, enforce what needs to be enforced at these stores.
0:19:58
Number 1, that they should have that they have 3 summonses that they're given, then there could perhaps be a some kind of either a fine and or a padlocking.
0:20:12
At the same time, they also have to keep track in some kind of an inventory of what they're selling.
0:20:17
Again, this is not, you know, getting rid of all the online batteries.
0:20:22
It is hopefully continuing what this council has done on the path, which is to focus on the batteries here in the city and trying to get only certified batteries to be used by these wonderful delivery workers.
0:20:34
We do not want any more fires.
0:20:36
Thank you very much.