After last year's scare over contaminated toys made in China, Congress responded with a new law to require all products aimed at children under 12 years old to be certified as safe and virtually lead-free by independent testing. The Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (
CPSIA) was passed in August, 2008. This law requires testing and certification for ALL toys, books, clothing, art, educational supplies, materials for the learning disabled, bicycles, and more. Any
uncertified item intended for children under the age of 12 will be considered contraband after February 10, 2009. The burden may be manageable for big manufacturers and retailers that can absorb the costs. Less likely to survive are hundreds and hundreds of small businesses and craftspeople.
While we applaud the
CPSIA for responding, in their haste they simply forgot to exclude the class of children's goods that have earned and kept the
public's trust: toys, clothes, books and accessories made in the US, Canada, Australia and Europe. As a result, unless the law is modified, is that handmade and used children's products will no longer be legal in the US. You won’t be able to sell or give away any children's products that have not been independently tested by a third-party lab and certified compliant with this law. Further more, this over reaching law will impact our schools and public libraries. Existing (safe) items will be required to be needlessly destroyed.
To anyone who has not READ the entire text of the law, and to those who have merely "skimmed" it: READ the
Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 before dismissing the very real concerns and issues raised.
The Act is very confusing and we want to be mindful that others need to be given enough context to understand the issues. It is not about being anti-child-safety or anti-testing. It’s not about politics. It is about dealing with the fact that this over reaching law is far too vague and neglects to consider the impact of its words. For small American, Canadian, Australian and European toy-makers, and manufacturers of all children's products the costs of mandatory testing will probably force them out of business. That said, even larger companies are demanding more clarification.
Please read this excellent
article written by Holly Jahangiri. I was touched by her elegance in making her points and her appeal to all people who will be impacted to unify their efforts.
I have no doubt the law will be amended, but how long will it take? And will it go far enough? During that time, how many independent designer and small business we have grown to love will be forced to closed their doors? As a crafts person, small business owner, children's product designer, book reader, consumer, etc, etc- I feel VERY deeply about changing this law. It impacts all of us. Please make your voice heard by signing a petition, writing or calling your congress
representative, send a letter to talk show hosts like Oprah, Ellen, Rachel Ray, Martha Stewart, contact your local news stations - anything to get the word out. You help is GREATLY needed.
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