Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act

Since most everything featured in our boutique is hand-crafted or produced by small businesses, we feel compelled to share some information about the soon-to-be-enacted Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA). This Act was passed in August of this year and, among other things, bans lead and phthalates in toys and other items and mandates third-party testing and certification.

Keeping our children safe should be a priority. However, in the governments rush to pass this legislation they forgot all about the small toy manufacturers, independent artisans, and crafters who cannot afford to invest thousands in product testing. Since the actual Act is bogged down with legalese, here's are some tangible examples (borrowed from the Handmade Toy Alliance) of the impacts:

*A toymaker who makes wooden cars in his garage in Maine cannot afford the $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 dolls to sell at craft fairs 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 problem is the way the legislation was written, it will be next to impossible for independents and small businesses to survive. Even larger US companies who employ local workers and have not once had any sort of safety issue will no longer be able to sell their goods. Without investing tens of thousands of dollars into third-party testing and labeling these products will be illegal as of February 10, 2009 and it will be a felony to sell them.

Who and what does this impact? Why should we care?

* Since most of the products intended for February delivery are either already made and on the way here or are in the process of being made and few to none of the inputs were tested beforehand, all of these items will end up in bonded warehouses or landfills because it is illegal to sell them even as seconds.
* Retailers will not be granted credit for inventory if it does not possess certifications. The end result is there will be a whole lot less product on store shelves. Since there won’t be much to pick from and costs are higher, consumers can expect to pay much higher prices. Prices will be rock bottom on February 9th, but overnight, prices will dramatically increase.
* The anticipated losses go into the hundreds of millions of dollars. This is not an exaggeration. According to 2002 U.S. Census Data (the last year for which data is available) just considering small U.S. clothing manufacturers; their contribution to the economy is over 900 million dollars annually. Small manufacturers with fewer than 20 employees comprise 68% of total apparel manufacturing in the U.S. This of course does not include toy manufacturers or the untold numbers of stores that will go out of business too; adding to our current financial crisis.

Testing is a must. But the legislation needs to be rewritten. If the testing is mandatory for all, then there needs to be affordable alternatives for small businesses. (See some of the proposed changes here: http://www.handmadetoyalliance.org/Home/our-proposal-to-modify-the-cpsia)

Please join us in speaking out against the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) as it is currently written. Together with your help, all of us who love handmade toys, clothing and other uniquely crafted products can bring about the changes necessary to ensure that all businesses can survive under these new mandates. Learn more about the CPSIA or help by visiting the following:

• Review this position paper and sign this petition from the Handmade Toy Alliance
• Review this position paper and sign this petition from the Children's Apparel Industry
• Get this information to the new administration via Change.org…the top 10 ideas are going to be presented to the Obama Administration on Inauguration Day.