Child Product Safety Law – New Legislation Affects Handmade Goods
Child Product Safety Law – New Legislation Affects Handmade Goods:
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Do you make handmade beads and jewelry for kids? Well as of February 20, 2009, your product may actually become illegal to sell in the United States if you don’t abide by some newly legislated, rigorous testing procedures. This issue was brought to my attention by Janet Allen, a regular reader here at the blog.
While it sounds like a very good idea in light of the huge issue with recalled toys over the past year, many small handmade toys and clothing businesses will be forced to shut down. This is because the regulated lead and safety tests cost anywhere from $500 to $4000 per product… which is of course is not feasible for many part-time crafters.
So does that mean there will be no more handmade baby booties, wooden toys or backpack penguin charms sold at specialty boutiques or craft fairs? What about all the nice organic stuff made for babies now? Will that become history? I bet there are a lot of Etsy store owners up in arms right now!
Janet also sent me a link where you can go to read more about this controversial issue: Millions of Homecrafters Facing Bankruptcy ** Dead Link
From what I can tell, the new regulations will not affect me directly, because I primarily sell information to adults in the bead and jewelry market. However, since polymer clay is often purchased by teachers for kids craft projects, I wanted to help get the word out on this important topic.
Does this new child product safety law affect you or your business? How do you feel about it? Please share your thoughts and opinions in the comments below!
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Thank you so much for your comment R.K.! It is an important issue that I hope gets amended for all of you who make and sell kid’s products.
Well, I am happy to see that some are really payiing attention to the reactionary laws that the past Congress rushed into. I hope all are calling their U.S. Senators and Representatives to express the same concern and distress expressed in these posts…I think that the “establishment” is still reacting on the side of big business by trying to ruin the little guy with all of the expense…They have the resources to test but the one of a kind artist will struggle to meet the testing requirements…cost ineffective!!! Call your U.S. legislative represenatives!
Yes Niki thank you so much for the information!
Thank you for your diligent research !!
For those in the U.S., your best bet is to write to your Senator and Representatives, with a letter like at this site: handmadetoyalliance.org/how-you-can-help (the site includes links to the Senators’ and Reps’ contact pages where you can search for your States’ Senators/Reps) and hope for the best. I also saw somewhere that there IS a group that has already written a letter to CPSIA asking them to modify several things about this law, so there are people looking out for us.
Also – in regards to polymer clay, the law is slated to prohibit lead and pthalates, and European based manufacturers FIMO and Cernit have already complied with the laws that Europe is already enforcing regarding pthalates, so their clays are pthalate-free. Polyform “claims” that theirs is also (makers of Premo/Sculpey), except for the Studio brand, but were not able to provide any insight as to how to tell the difference between the packages that are supposedly pthalate free and those which are not.
I am fairly certain that any of their packaging that still says “contains PVC’s” has the pthalates in them, and the new packaging that lacks this statement, I hope, is the formula that has the pthalates removed. Since their own people can’t even tell me though, I wouldn’t hedge on that 100%. However since a lot of their products are also geared towards children, I am betting they are already complying and are manufacturing their products (except Studio) without pthalates.
I may write the person who responded to my query again and see if there is any way anyone can tell us how to tell the difference, especially in light of this new law and if it’s able to be amended to exclude end products whose components were already “cleared” by that expensive testing…
Nice to see some passion Anna! Yeah I’m not too sure how they plan on enforcing the law. But I’m sure there will be many retail business’ that won’t carry handmade goods for fear of fines. I think this rule should apply to only those businesses making more than X number of dollars per year. That way the huge companies can be more diligent with their product standards and the little guy isn’t pushed out of the market all together!
I skimmed the attached article. “Put your hands up and step away from the Pre-mo !!” Sounds like a knee jerk reaction to a serious problem that was NOT created by home based artists and crafters. The problem began with greedy US companies that laid off US workers to have their products cheaply made in out of country sweat shops, while the US CEO’s stuffed their pockets with profits.
The US government should be more worried about drug trafficking? How will it affect craft supply stores? I don’t know how the US can possibly enforce this related to handmade items. This will be a total waste of man power, money and resources. Craft shows, farmers markets, in home parties, cottage industries, art shows are part of our culture. Are there going to be undercover inspector at these venues throwing us in jail. Maybe they can throw us all into the same federal prison and we can have a PC retreat.
I’ve been looking Kam and I haven’t found anywhere, that it says this law will effect us here in Canada. Though I am sure if you sell online to someone in the States it may apply. If someone buys something here though, its likely the rules here that count. Just like if you bought something in Africa you wouldn’t expect the laws to be the same as here [Disclaimer: This is definitely not legal advice].
In your post it says in the States…..are in for the same here in Canada?? Or what if I sold a kids necklace to an American on vacation here….would that come back to haunt me later on?? Those were my first few questions I had when reading that article. Kinda scary!
It would be a shame to lose all of the wonderful handmade goods for children. I’m not a big fan of all the commercially manufactured plastic junk that dominates today’s toy marketplace. Does anyone have any solution oriented ideas to share. Don’t be shy. You never know, your idea may get read by some decision maker who plays a part in coming up with some sort of resolution where everyone wins.