The Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (HR4040) requires end product testing of all products intended for people 12 and under.  Protecting kids from toxic items, good... but the implementation is absolutely horrible.  And ripe for comedy because you don't even need to exagerate.

This includes ALL products for those 12 and under, regardless of how they're used or what age they are for.  So must test a children pacifier and microscope for a 6th grade sice lab to same standards.  One manufacturer has already stated they're pulling out of microscope market because the testing assumes 12 year olds are eating the lightbulbs!  If your 12 year old is eating lightbulbs out a of a microscope, you have more serious issues.

The only thing removed from testing thusfar is electronics, cotton, and gemstones.  So it is totally okay for kids to have diamonds... but not bicycle helmets.

The second insane part of that it requires unit testing.  This means you have to test the end products, not the components. For example, you are publishing textbooks.  You publish a spelling book and a science book on the same day, on the same press, using all the same materials, and the same crew... you must test the science book and the spelling book separately for lead.  

Yes, you read that right.  The testing assumes that by rearranging the letters inside the books, you could spontaenously generate lead. Ditto for DVDs and CDs of educational software. Because this CD has a different arangement of ones and zeros on it, this one might be filled with lead!

WAIT, IT GETS DUMBER!

You use only 2 components to make an item.  Let's say you're an Amish guy making cute wooden blocks.  You use wood, which is certified lead free.  You use beeswax as finish, it is certified as lead free.  You use hand tools, which are certified lead free.  You still have to test the product for lead!

Definitely-not-lead +Definitely-not-lead +Definitely-not-lead = LEAD

The government regs assume alchemy works.  Perhaps this is really their secret bailout plan.  Locate all the led in dangerous children items so they can turn it into gold!

There's a lot of other things that are wrong with the law, but those two are probably the most ripe for parody.  It's a VERY serious legal problem, but the bad science, assumption that 12 years old will eat everything from microscopes to bicycles to their textbooks,  and the overall assumption that handcrafted items are DEADLY, are really the easiest to grasp parts.  The Amish are not trying to kill us.  Little old ladies at craft bazaars are not trying to kill us.  The people making childrens clothes entirely out of hemp aren't trying to kill us.  People with knitting needles aren't terrorists. But the government is treating it that way...

Links for research (research, what's that!?!):

CPSIA effect on bookstores and libraries (namely, bookburning, yeah!): http://bookshopblog.com/2009/01/04/book-burning-on-feb-10th-2009-due-to-cpsia/

Washington Post Article:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/20/AR2008122001878.html

Wall Street Journal article on effect on thrift stores: 

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123137430044662809.html?mod=googlenews_wsj#

Collection of videos and articles:

http://cpsia-central.ning.com/

Latest updates from Twitter:

http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23cpsia

I make handmade baby bibs and appliqued onesies and t-shirts... this new law will be putting me and HUNDREDS of THOUSANDS of small businesses out of business. What a great idea in this economy, huh?

Here is the "funny" part for me. The breakdown of how much it will cost me to test one item:

To test for lead costs $70 per component, and since my bibs usually have at least 6 components (front fabric, back fabric, applique fabric(s), button, snap, tag) it would cost approximately $420. And that's just for lead. Add in the additional $350 PER COMPONENT for phthalates and we have to add on $2,100 per bib. That's a grand total of testing costs of $2,510 for a $14 bib.

The best part is that most of my items are custom or one-of-a-kind and to test a product ruins it - they run a decomposition test on it. Gee, that makes sense!

There are so many funny "uh-oh" (as opposed to funny "ha-ha") components to this law that it would, indeed, make a great story.

Thanks!

jesi

www.HipViolet.Etsy.com

Anyone remember the lead paint on toys from China that prompted this legislation?  Funny no one has mentioned it yet. it's important to note that europe's been banning sterilizing pthalates for years (yeah, not just women, but sperm counts guys!), and if Bush reduced the exemption-granting crew to 12 people, there'll be some kinks to getting the act working FOR the consumers without being AGAINST producers.

No one here is saying that we should say yes to lead and pthalates. The Washington Post article pointed out that "Backers of the new law say the toy industry had plenty of warning that government was making safety regulations tougher. California, which has the largest state economy and often sets trends because of its market muscle, approved a toy safety overhaul similar to the federal legislation in 2007. That ban takes effect next month".

Enacting the rules hasn't even been finished yet -- the law was hasty and until it's rules and regulations are written, I don't think that you have to stop selling baby bibs.  And ranting against consumer safety legislation itself will extinct us.  It's the implementation that matters.

I'm not giving up yet!

What I find funny is that the law was meant to stop the lead toys that China was producing. However because if they actually DO implement it (which will be hard as I think there are only about a half-dozen people who actually work for the CSPC), the only toys and apparel we'll have in this country will have been MADE IN CHINA!

Funny.

Anyway, I totally agree with the IDEA of this law. I have a little one at home and have been really angry about the crap that gets into children's toys, bottles, etc. But they made the law so broad that it just doesn't make any sense.

BUT I have to disagree that ranting against the CSPC legislation will somehow extinct us. It's all of us "little people" who have been ranting and raving and getting the word out about how impossible it is implement... and guess what? THEY ARE LISTENING! At least a little bit. That's what I do like about this country, in some situations if you get enough little people together you really can make a "change" 

They are currently asking for suggestions on what products and supplies to exempt for the testing. Right now even if you use certified organic cotton to make a t-shirt and certified organic ink to screen print on it, you STILL have to pay for the testing of the finished product. It's just silly. So we're asking that they exempt products that the original manufacturer has already had tested and is certified. It really only makes sense and will make us all breath a huge sigh of relief. 

That's just assuming that I quit sprinkling lead dust in between my cut-out pieces of bibs before I sew them up

jesi

jforgizmo, the problem is the non-compliance with the decades-old lead ban.  No new laws need to be made, especially one that will put thousands of people out of business in a job market already short on jobs.  Why doesn't Congress do something like...oh...ENFORCE THE CURRENT LEAD-IN-PAINT LAWS!!

Come February 10th, unless this law is reversed, yes, she will have to stop selling her baby bibs unless she's willing to risk six-figure fines and years in jail.

Yes, the madness of this is that the China problem is 100% an enforcement problem, not a regulation problem.

China actually has TOUGHER lead standards than the US.  See this New York Times article from 2007: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/11/business/worldbusiness/11lead.html

At the time of all those toy recalls, China required 90ppm or less.  US can have up to 600ppm or less.  What happened?  China wasn't enforcing it.  Or manufacturers were forging testin certificates.

With how overwhelmed the CPSA already is, how is adding millions of additional forms to the system going to make enforcement easier?  All it will do is make children LESS safe.  Those who were gaming the system and would only be caught through aggressive spot testing can now get lost in the tidal wave of paperwork.

This is like the police saying "Hey, meth labs are bad.  And are illegal.  To deal with them, everybody in town must produce a certificate saying "I'm not a meth lab" or get out of town!"

What happens?  Those that can afford it pay for the certificate.  The meth lab buys a forged certificate.  Those that can't afford to prove they're NOT a meth lab have to leave town.

WTF.

The American Library Association has now joined the fight as they consider this effectively censorship:

http://www.wo.ala.org/districtdispatch/?p=1322

Quote: "The American Library Association (ALA) released a letter to Congress yesterday, urging members to take action against a recent opinion ruling released from the General Counsel of the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) that would require public, school, academic and museum libraries to either remove all their books or ban all children under 12 from visiting the facilities, beginning on February 10."

Librarians snark.  what did you guys want, book banning, or banning children.  please clarify!

Do not anger librarians.  They have superior research and organizational skills and the ability to kill with a stare.  The ALA was also one of the few organizations to battle the Patriot Act and win.

I think the head of the ALA would be a great person to interview on the subject of CPSIA and just how dumb it is.  The snark would be priceless!