laws will be welcomed by all those people who have complained over the years that the Consumer Affairs Bureau had little or no power. Far too frequently we have heard complaints from individuals that they could not get satisfaction because there was really no protection in law.

We agree with Senator Yvette Swan, the Minister of Community Affairs, that "the time has come that we have our own safety standards''. We may be past the time when we could rely on people to simply remove from the shelves anything recalled overseas or when Bermudian common sense would prevent the sale of dangerous items. We were very interested to note the Senator's remark that unlike other countries Bermuda has no legislation to force the recall of goods proven to be dangerous.

We were happy to see that the Minister is aware that sub-standard goods, seconds and goods which have failed to move even in sales in the United States are being brought into Bermuda for sales or special promotions. There is nothing wrong with that if the customer is aware but far too often these days sales give the appearance of being a markdown on the shop's regular stock but are really a discounted special shipment of goods the store never stocked.

This can lead to bargains and there is certainly nothing wrong with that but a problem arises if the goods are flawed because in sales there are generally "no exchanges and no refunds''.

We have some doubts about requiring food content labels on locally prepared foods. Clearly the larger local food and drink manufacturers could achieve that with little difficulty. They prepare to formulas and could list that formula. However many of Bemuda's prepared foods are a "cottage industry'' which would make content listing much more difficult. As an example, many people have their favourite chicken or mussel pie and they know just where to buy them. Would they need content lists? What about the jams, jellies, breads and cakes sold at fairs and all kinds of bake sales, will they need listed contents? If they do it will be the death knell for bake sales.

Date stamping is a real problem in Bermuda. Very often date stamps are the date things should be sold by and not the date they should be consumed by.

Foods consumed soon after the sell by date are safe. If Bermuda adheres to these dates which are really designed for high turn over food chains, then we are likely to further increase food prices, which are already high, if foods are removed and thrown out on their sell by date. There might also be a temptation for food markets simply not to stock anything which is date stamped other than basic items.

However, this legislation basically means that Bermuda is bringing itself in line with much of the rest of the advanced world and there is nothing wrong with that. Bermudians too have a right to be protected.