How the CPSIA WILL affect your kids.

For those of you who know me well, you know I'm making tutus. And how, after February 10, I will no longer be able to sell them on Etsy. You've then also heard my rant about the CPSIA and how it will affect every product intended for children under 12, and how this will destroy the Mom and Pop cottage industries that are flourishing on sites like Etsy and Artfire. In an economy where the jobless rate is rising, taking away additional sources of income seems ill-planned.

The Handmade Toy Alliance sums up the issue well:

In 2007, large toy manufacturers who outsource their production to China and other developing countries violated the public's trust. They were selling toys with dangerously high lead content, toys with unsafe small part, toys with improperly secured and easily swallowed small magnets, and toys made from chemicals that made kids sick. Almost every problem toy in 2007 was made in China.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 toymakers and manufacturers of children's products, however, the costs of mandatory testing will likely drive them out of business.

• A toymaker, for example, who makes wooden cars in his garage in Maine to supplement his income cannot afford the $300 - $4,000 fee per toy that testing labs are charging to assure compliance with the CPSIA.
  
• A work at home mom in Minnesota who makes cloth diapers to sell online must choose either to violate the law or cease operations.
  
• A small toy retailer in Vermont who imports wooden toys from Europe, which has long had stringent toy safety standards, must now pay for testing on every toy they import.
  
• And even the handful of larger toy makers who still employ workers in the United States face increased costs to comply with the CPSIA, even though American-made toys had nothing to do with the toy safety problems of 2007.

The fines for selling products under the wire is up to $100,000. Products made prior to the date will pretty much need to be discarded instead of sold.

Well, you say, I don't buy handmade items. Does this really apply to me? Do you ever take your child to the library? Well, the way the Act is written, books will need to be removed from school libraries, and children under 12 may be banned. Don't believe me? Read here.

Don't get me wrong. I'm totally about protecting our kids from the harm of lead poisoning. But our politicos rushed through this legislation a little too quickly, and I honestly don't believe they thought through the implications at the time. Forbes even commented on how the Act needs to be scrapped.

There are a few things that you can do. You can contact your senator or congressman(or woman), or sign the online petition.

In the meantime, if you have any favorite Etsy shops, now might be the time to make that purchase if you were putting it off until a later date! www.etsy.com