Dangerous lithium-ion batteries that have caused scores of fires in New York City — taking 33 lives in the process over the last three years — will no longer be allowed to be sold in the U.S. under a new federal measure poised to be voted on, officials said Wednesday.
Following a round of budget negotiations, New York Sen. Charles Schumer managed to insert the Setting Consumer Standards for Lithium-Ion Batteries Act into a massive budget bill expected to be approved by Congress in the coming days.
The measure will allow the federal Consumer Product Safety Commission to create national safety standards for lithium-ion batteries, enforce the standards, and issue recalls for batteries that don’t pass muster, federal officials said.
Sen. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib)
The measure was applauded by the FDNY, which has sounded the alarm against unregulated and potentially dangerous batteries for years.
“This is huge and something the FDNY has pushed for more than two years,” FDNY Fire Commissioner Robert Tucker said Wednesday. “We started talking about three years ago, well before anyone else in the country knew it was a problem.”
Since 2019, 929 fires in New York City have been caused by lithium-ion batteries, which have injured 507 people and resulted in 33 deaths, Tucker said.
Earlier this month, a firefighter was injured as he fought a fire in a Midtown Manhattan e-bike rental store sparked by a lithium-ion battery.
Legislation against unregulated lithium-ion batteries have already passed in the city and the state, Tucker said.
“This missing piece was the federal component,” Tucker said. “We all know how little it matters if something is illegal in New York City when you can get it across the bridge in New Jersey.”
Beginning with former Fire Commissioner Laura Kavanagh, FDNY executives have visited Washington, D.C. five times over the last two years to push this legislation along.
“We know this legislation, once signed into law, will save lives,” Tucker said. “[It] will help prevent unregulated and uncertified batteries from entering the country, and New York.”
Most of the batteries that overheat and explode are not certified by a nationally accredited testing facility like Underwriters Laboratories, officials said. The bill will prevent those batteries from being shipped and sold in the U.S.
Schumer said he used “last minute negotiations” to put the bill into the end-of-year budget package.
“We are in a time where technology is outpacing federal safety action in many ways, moving faster than the measures we need to keep the public safe, and there might be no better example of this dilemma than with the cheap, China-made lithium-ion batteries in the e-bikes, e-scooters and other devices that are now as common in the home as a toaster—but far, far less regulated,” Schumer said.
“The fires and the injuries caused by these batteries have caused tremendous loss across New York and federal action is needed to protect consumers and also our brave firefighters who are on the front lines of this new paradigm in fire prevention spurred by these unpredictable, and often times, very dangerous batteries.”
Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.) penned the legislation in the House and New York Sen. Kristen Gillibrand put together a companion bill in the Senate. The bill passed Congress, but was held up in the Senate by Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who thought the legislation would result in over-regulation.
FDNY Fire Marshal Daniel Flynn said the act would create federal safety standards for lithium-ion batteries in the U.S. that has never existed before.
“Before this, there were no safety standards,” he said. “You could make them in your basement and sell them as a high-quality product and people would have no idea what they’re getting. Now you’re not going to sell these products unless you meet these standards.”
A massive FDNY initiative which included increased inspections of bicycle shops and a major advertising and educational campaign helped get out the message of the potential dangers lithium-ion batteries can cause.
As a result, deaths linked to lithium-ion batteries have dropped, from 18 deaths this time last year to five, Tucker said.