My sister sent me some info about new US legislation that has the potential to eradicate the handmade toy industry from February 2009. There are several links to related articles below ... what do you think?
http://www.handmadetoyalliance.org/
The United States Congress rightly recognized that the Consumer Products Safety Commission (CPSC) lacked the authority and staffing to prevent dangerous toys from being imported into the US. So, they passed the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) in August, 2008. Among other things, the CPSIA bans lead and phthalates in toys, mandates third-party testing and certification for all toys and requires toy makers to permanently label each toy with a date and batch number.
All of these changes will be fairly easy for large, multinational toy manufacturers to comply with. Large manufacturers who make thousands of units of each toy have very little incremental cost to pay for testing and update their molds to include batch labels.
For small American, Canadian, and European toymakers, however, the costs of mandatory testing will likely drive them out of business.
http://etsynews.com/824/etsy-addresses-new-cpsia-consumer-product-safety-imrovement-act-and-its-potentially-devastating-impact-on-sellers-of-handmade-for-kids/
http://www.globalmama.com/2008/12/12/consumer-product-safety-improvement-act-threat-to-handmade-childrens-items/
http://design-my-handbag.com/childrens-products-and-the-cpsia/
http://www.coolmompicks.com/savehandmade/
http://blogsearch.google.com/blogsearch?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&q=CPSIA&btnG=Search+Blogs
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
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... also ...
2 comments:
this is indeed worrisome. i had no idea.
FYI: Press Release yesterday: CPSC Grants One Year Stay of Testing and Certification Requirements for Certain Products
...The stay of enforcement provides some temporary, limited relief to the crafters, children’s garment manufacturers and toy makers who had been subject to the testing and certification required under the CPSIA. These businesses will not need to issue certificates based on testing of their products until additional decisions are issued by the Commission. However, all businesses, including, but not limited to, handmade toy and apparel makers, crafters and home-based small businesses, must still be sure that their products conform to all safety standards and similar requirements, including the lead and phthalates provisions of the CPSIA...
More details here.
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