Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, May 24, 1994                   TAG: 9405240089
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

IN CONGRESS

WASHINGTON - Warning labels would be required for toys that present a choking hazard to small children under a bill passed Monday by the House.

The Child Safety Protection Act, passed by voice vote, mandates the Consumer Product Safety Commission to issue rules for warning labels for toys and games that could be a choking hazard to pre-schoolers.

The commission also is to establish a uniform, mandatory safety standard for bicycle helmets.

The compromise bill now goes to the Senate for final approval.

The measure requires labels for balloons, small balls and marbles, and bans balls under 1.75 inches in diameter intended for children under 3 years of age.

It says that manufacturers and retailers of toys and games with small parts must report to the commission any instances in which a child chokes on such products and dies or is seriously injured.

According to the safety commission, 40 children choked to death on small balls between 1980 and 1991.

- Associated Press

Radioactive waste dumping ban OK'd

WASHINGTON - Acceding to an international convention signed last year, the House on Monday approved a ban on dumping radioactive waste in the ocean.

The bill, passed by voice vote, strengthens a 1972 law that prohibits dumping high-level radioactive wastes into ocean waters.

The United States and most other industrial nations in 1972 agreed to the London Dumping Convention that banned high-level radioactive waste dumping. In 1983, those nations also agreed to a voluntary moratorium on disposing of low-level radioactive wastes in the ocean.

That voluntary moratorium was formalized last November after it was disclosed that the former Soviet Union had dumped tons of nuclear waste, including nuclear reactor cores, into the Barents Sea, Kara Sea and the Sea of Japan.

The bill still must be considered by the Senate.

- Associated Press