Here at The Lily Pad we are big supporters of mompreneurs and small businesses of handmade clothes, toys and accessories. So when I heard about the new legislation that is threatening to put these small toy makers out of business, I was concerned. Shelley, from PAD, has assured me that Patricia Ann Designs is not going to be affected, but we still care about the many businesses that will!
The Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) was passed last August, and in the coming year will go into effect. As a mother, I, too, am concerned about the safety of the toys our children are playing with, but I agree with others that this legislation is a lazy way of going about toy safety regulation by generalizing all manufacturers, local and foreign.
A website called the Handmade Toy Alliance, states:
"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."
It's the small manufacturers that won't be able to afford the required third party testing who are going to be in trouble though. Ohana Mama puts it this way: "Third party testing is expensive and it's not just testing one thing,
it's testing all parts of something. So it will put many many
retailers/makers of products out of business."
If you'd like to help, be sure to sign the online petition! The petition is not completely against the legislation, but rather requests changes be made to avoid the tragic end of handmade, locally-based, small-scale businesses. You can also write to your United States Congress Person and Senator to request changes in the CPSIA to save handmade toys. Use Handmade Toy Alliance's sample letter or write your own. You can find your Congress Person here and Senator here.
Z Recommends also has a great article on 5 Steps You Can Take to Save Natural/Handmade Companies from the CPSC and CPSIA.
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