I'm hoping to get everyone to help me take down the Christmas tree later this afternoon. I want to reclaim the lost space in my living room.
I've spent a fair amount of time this morning reading up on the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act and the effects it will have on home crafters. Here's etsy's piece on the legislation.
From what I'm reading, even the resale of children's clothes at thrift stores would be affected and d-day is February 10th, just a few weeks away. Here's Simple Dollars piece on this debacle. I'm beyond bugged.
It's time to get active and send some emails, make some phone calls, do whatever you do best but let your voice be heard!
UPDATE
Here's an update from 1/8/2009 on the legislation direct from the CPSC specifically dealing with thrift stores and other resellers.
The new law requires that domestic manufacturers and importers certify that children’s products made after February 10 meet all the new safety standards and the lead ban. Sellers of used children’s products, such as thrift stores and consignment stores, are not required to certify that those products meet the new lead limits, phthalates standard or new toy standards.
3 comments:
This drives me crazy. Children will always play with homemade toys. They have since the beginning of time. More and more of the problems we see with childrens toys are corporate in nature, especially those toys being imported from China.
Love your blog and have found many useful links here. Just wanted to point out that many people seem to stop reading after the reprieve in the third paragraph. The fourth paragraph states that, while the inventory does not have to be tested, it cannot be resold without meeting the new limits, otherwise the reseller can face penalties. So, the reseller must be very comfortable with the lead contents of various merchandise, pay to have it tested or stop selling it. My local resellers have said they will not take a chance and will stop selling.
"The new safety law does not require resellers to test children’s products in inventory for compliance with the lead limit before they are sold. However, resellers cannot sell children’s products that exceed the lead limit and therefore should avoid products that are likely to have lead content, unless they have testing or other information to indicate the products being sold have less than the new limit. Those resellers that do sell products in violation of the new limits could face civil and/or criminal penalties."
I did see the fourth paragraph and agree it presents a sticky situation for resellers. It seems that most in my area are comfortable with continuing to sell clothes, its the toys the thrift stores in my area are focusing their efforts on.
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