Toy makers may win lead-testing exemption
Rules on lead threatened to hurt those who create
handcrafted items
Update 9-2-9 by Susie
Stramler (for
a lively discussion on this, please stop by our forum and give your
opinions on this horrendous piece of legislation)
Many people know what CPSIA (Consumer Product Safety
Improvement Act) is but there are many others out there that still
do not have a clue. CPSIA is an Act that was signed by President
Bush in 2008 that affects manufactures and any person that sells
items geared for children under the age of 12. This includes but is
not limited to: crafter's who make items for children (even hair
bows), resellers of items, second hand stores and even the
neighborhood yard sale.
http://www.kansascity.com/444/story/1395184.html
Might want to read before you have that yard sale
Link For Resale Handbook
Many people are just discovering how the CPSIA affects them.
This article is intended to help you find (or at least point you in
the right direction) the information you need all in one place.
First of all, you can go to the CPSC website and add yourself to
their email list so that you will get all the updated information
directly to your email. This is very helpful, as the CPSC issues new
statements and guidelines quite often. You won't have to search for
the answers because they come directly to your email!
Threading Your Way Through the Labeling Requirements Under
the Textile and Wool Acts
I have seen many comments from people thinking at this point
they really do not have to do anything to their products because
some are still fighting this act. They are wrong! Please read the
following information that came from the FAQ link below.
CPSC to Enforce New CPSIA Requirements for Children’s
Products Effective August 14, 2009
The law requires that one year after
enactment, or August 14, 2009, manufacturers of children’s products
must place permanent marks on their product providing the
information specified. Thus, the Commission staff believes that the
tracking label requirement applies to children’s products
manufactured on or after August 14, 2009. Hang tags or adhesive
labels will not work, they have to be permanent.
As you will see, some items have been exempted from the
"testing" but those items still must have a tracking label. The way
I understand it these labels can be any size (they must be readable)
and the minimum that the tracking label must have is: the city,
state/territory, the country the item was made in and the production
or completion date for the item. You should have records showing
where you bought the items you used, etc. in case one of your
items needs to be tracked for one reason or another.
Remember this is an additional label that is now required
and does not take the place of labels that are already required by
federal law such as care or fabric content or chocking hazard
warnings. You can check category by category at
http://www.cpsc.gov/ , but you do have
to dig around.
I think this is what is confusing so many people, your supplies
won't need to be tested until February 2010, they did put a one year
stay on testing. However, you should be certain that your supplies
fall under the lead limits. But .. ALL items manufactured on or
after August 14, 2009 do need labels.
FAQ
http://www.cpsc.gov/about/cpsia/sect103.html#103q8
Here is a list of items exempt from the lead testing as of
this date:
Table B
- These materials or components can be used (separately or
in combination) and sold
(provided they have not been treated or altered
or undergone any processing that could result in the addition of
lead):
- Wood
- Other natural materials
including coral, amber, feathers, fur, and untreated
leather
- Yarn, dyed or undyed
- Dyed or undyed textiles
(cotton, wool, hemp, nylon, etc.), including
children’s fabric products, such as baby blankets,
and non-metallic thread and trim. This does not
include products that have rhinestones or other
ornaments that may contain lead or that have
fasteners with possible lead content (such as
buttons, metal snaps, zippers or grommets).
- Children’s books printed
after 1985 that are conventionally printed and
intended to be read, as opposed to used for play
- Certain educational
materials, such as chemistry sets
- Precious gemstones:
diamond, ruby, sapphire or emeralds
- Semiprecious stones
provided that the mineral or material is not based
on lead and is not associated with any mineral based
on lead
- Natural or cultured
pearls
- Surgical steel
- Gold, of at least 10
karats
- Silver, at least
925/1000 pure
- Platinum, palladium,
rhodium, osmium, iridium, and ruthenium
|
Hope this has given you some information that you can
use to help better understand how this Act is and will affect
you.
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(
see article below) I was just reading about these
recent laws that are forcing companies to have their toys tested for
lead. Don't know if this is really necessary and I think that this lead
problem might have been blown out of proportion. I agree that children
should be protected from lead, but there might be groups or individuals
out there who stand to make some big bucks because of this. I am always
skeptical about some of these new laws where you have to do this, buy
that, wear this, don't wear that, etc. because I think that the
producers/manufacturers of these items, etc., are the ones initiating
the bills that create these new laws.
Anyhow, went off track here. There are quite a few
people in the Arts and Crafts world out there who are making their toys
OR are importing them from China, etc. Here an article about having to
get your toys inspected for lead. Life is tough out there for the
vendors and arts and crafts people and things might get tougher.
For more information on this please check
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h110-4040 This
is about the HR4040 bill that was passed in December.
Here is what somebody wrote on their blog. This is from a fellow
'crafter' and is interesting to read.
http://pinaforesandknickerbockers.blogspot.com/2008/12/disturbing-law.html
http://babyswagspr.wordpress.com/2008/12/23/supporting-small-businesses-cpsia-law-issues/
Help Save Handmade Toys in the
USA from the CPSIA - Hand-made Toy Alliance.
http://sites.google.com/site/handmadetoyalliance/ You
can vote here or get info on contacting Congress about this matter.
Save Handmade Toys From the CPSIA
http://www.change.org/ideas/view/save_handmade_toys_from_the_cpsia
Dec. 24, 2008
SAN FRANCISCO — The makers of handcrafted toys
received some holiday hope Wednesday with support from a federal agency
for proposed exemptions from strict lead-testing regulations they feared
could put them out of business.
Last year's discovery of lead paint in mass-market
toys prompted the government to pass new safety rules requiring testing
and labeling that mom-and-pop workshops and retailers said they could
not afford. As a February deadline for complying with the law
loomed, toy makers who use materials such as unfinished wood, organic
cotton and beeswax sought exemptions from the rules.
In a memo released Wednesday, Consumer Product Safety
Commission staffers recommended that the agency exempt some natural
materials from the lead testing requirements.
"I think this is definitely a step in the right
direction and would provide substantial and enormous relief to our
manufacturers," said Dan Marshall, co-owner of Peapods Natural Toys and
Baby Care in St. Paul, Minn.
Marshall and nearly 100 other toy stores and makers
formed the Handmade Toy Alliance to ask lawmakers to exempt small toy
companies from testing and labeling rules.
Staff toxicologists at the product safety commission
told agency commissioners in the memo that some unfinished natural
materials should be considered lead free. The materials include wood and
fibers such as cotton, silk, wool, hemp, flax and linen.
The safety commission still must vote on the
recommendations.
Small toy makers strongly back the restrictions in
the bill, which they say reflect voluntary standards they have long
observed to keep harmful substances out of toys. But they never thought
their products would be considered a threat.
Under the law, all children's products must be tested
for lead and other harmful substances. Toy makers are required to pay a
third-party lab for the testing and to put tracking labels on all toys
to show when and where they were made. Those requirements make sense for a multinational toy
manufacturer churning out thousands of plastic toys on an overseas
assembly line, said Marshall.
But a business that makes, for example, a few hundred
handcrafted wooden baby rattles each year cannot afford to pay up to
$4,000 per product for testing, a price some toy makers have been
quoted, he said. Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill., lead sponsor of the
legislation, says toy makers should not worry. Rush points out that the
law already exempts products and materials that do not threaten public
safety or health.
"This exemption should be sufficient to affect most
companies," Rush said in an e-mail to The Associated Press. The
commission has until Jan. 5 to decide on the exemptions.
