Help save homemade toys, handmade kids clothes, and above all, tons of small businesses from the wrath of the CPSIA

Mamas, I desperately need your help.

As we all know, lead and toxic chemicals do not belong in our children's toys. Congress, fortunately, acted quickly to fix that problem. Unfortunately, they did so by passing the Consumer Products Safety Improvement Act which threatens to destroy small businesses with prohibitively expensive testing and labeling requirements. In other words, the small artists, toymakers, and WAHM crafters--you know, the people who already make products that we love and trust--are going to go under while the big honkin' toy companies can continue making their plastic crap in China. You can read all about it here. If you are okay with legalese. 

Say goodbye to the beautiful carved wooden toys you find at craft fairs or on etsy, the homemade baby slippers knit by a mom trying to support her family while she stays home with her kids, the cute handmade bows that your neighbor is selling to raise some spending money.

All the details are at Cool Mom Picks as well as on Mom-101 today (where I explain why I take this all so very personally). All you have to do is one or more of the following:

-Find your congress person and senators and write a letter like the sample here, particularly if they serve on the consumer protection subcommittee.

-Send a letter directly to the CPSC.

-Join the Handmade Toy Alliance and check out their proposed changes to the act many of which make a whole lot of sense.

-Spread the word to everyone you know who cares about helping the little guy, particular in today's economy.

I don't know about you but I love finding dolls for my girls made with love and not lead paint. I love sending them off to play on hand-carved wooden ride-on toys with no batteries, so that they might actually say CHOO CHOO! by themselves and not wait for a voice chip to do it for them. I will be heartbroken if our country's cottage industries are destroyed when a few simple legislative changes could save them.

If the moms of the world can put our voices together and get one bad Motrin ad pulled, then certainly we can take on this.

Liz Gumbinner is the author of Mom101 and the co-founder and editor of the shopping blog Cool Mom Picks which is fiercely devoted to supporting small business and the handmade community.

[photo: bamboletta, the most incredible handmade dolls you've ever seen]

Comments

[jaelithe]

I am so glad you posted about this here. I was going to ask you to after I read about it at Cool Mom Picks.

This is really important. We ALL want safe, properly tested toys for our children, and parents everywhere have been begging the government to take action, but this is not the right law. It needs fixing.

[Kids Toys]

Ban on toxic toys is a good move from government. Because of this ban small cottage industries suffering is not a good sign. May be government can list out the product names which are hazardous.

Thanks
Julia

[Stacy]

Allow me to first say that I am a huge Momocrats fan. And my difference of opinion on this matter will not make me stop reading your wonderfully informative entries.

I have a slightly different take on the new legislation which the CPSC is now undertaking. For many years toy imports went virtually unsearched and untested and that resulted in the horrific situation we are facing now, super high levels of lead and other harmful industrial chemicals in our children's toy. These toys that our babies chew and suck on for hours each day have chemicals that enter the body through oral ingestion and these heavy metals, like lead never leave the body, they build up, and that is why they are so toxic.

I really respect your desire to protect small toy makers and homemade toys. Personally, I try to give my one year old as many handmade toys as possible because I know that unfinished wood is far safer than plastics and especially paint. Lead is found in the paint, particularly in yellows. Homemade cloth and stuffed animal toys can have loose buttons and seams that can just as easily be a choking hazard as a toy from any large manufacturer. If you make products for children I think you should have to comply with safety standards and undergo the necessary bureaucratic steps that will work to protect children on a large scale. I respectfully disagree that we should try to change this new legislation that was the result of far too many accidental deaths and severe injuries resulting directly from an unregulated toy industry.

I have a family member who works for the CPSC and I am familiar with their work and the dedication of many employees who see incident reports and images of children who were hurt and killed playing with toys that many of you have in your homes this very minute.

The sad truth is that kids die in collapsed cribs and pack and plays, crack skulls when wheels fall off of strollers and choke to death on small parts and get large cuts from unclean edges of hard plastic and get fingers pinched in wheels and small crevices. Toddlers pull televisions over and die from blunt trauma and brain injury. Baby carrier straps break and newborns fall to the ground. I assure you it is not pretty. This new legislation is playing catch up because this particular regulatory agency was underfunded and ignored for many years. Industry, which as much more money and resources often fights tooth and nail to keep products unregulated and unsafe because it helps their bottom line.

I don't want to start a fury over here in this comment section, but I just wanted to put out another opinion. I do recognize that small toy-makers could potentially be put out of business having to comply with new standards but the potential of NOT complying with the new standards is too grave to even consider. I understand this quandry and I do not have a solution to suggest.

If you are a small toy maker and your business is threatened I urge you to contact the CPSC directly, keep trying until you get a positive response from someone who will take your concerns into consideration and work with you.

Do you know if your crib is safe? Are those blocks full of lead? What are your kids playing with right now, do you know if it safe?

[Liz]

Stacy, I respect your opinion and no one has been a stronger advocate for banning chemicals in toys, bpa in bottles, and toxins in products that our kids are exposed to than my partner Kristen and me at Cool Mom Picks.

But as you said, "For many years toy imports went virtually unsearched and untested and that resulted in the horrific situation we are facing now."

Imports.

During this time, tens of thousands of parents turned to the local handmade community who were already a trusted source of safe products made with love. These were never the toys causing problems. And now these are the artists being forced to comply with regulations that are truly intended for the huge manufacturers who make their products overseas, outsourcing to dozens and even hundreds of vendors - which is the point where safety and accountability falls off.

Can a kid choke on a penny or die because a TV falls on his head? Of course. Parental responsibility never goes away simply because there is (or isn't) a new law passed.

In New York, a law was passed recently by which restaurants would have to provide transfat and calorie counts on their menus. The law was amended to larger chains - because the issue was never really The Four Seasons, it was McDonalds. I think a similar amendment could work very well here, accounting for the difference between a multi-tiered overseas manufacturing conglomerate and an individual craftsperson.

The artists are in no way saying they shouldn't be accountable - I want to be clear about that. They are more accountable than any single one of the makers of the plastic crap on the shelves of your local Walmart. They care deeply about what they do, and how it's made.

They're simply asking not to be held to the impossible, business-destroying standards of those who caused the problems in the first place.

[Liz]

Let me say that a little more concisely:

Small manufacturers should be held to the same safety standards.

They just need different methods of accountability for those standards.

[Stacy]

Liz -- I totally and completely see your point and I am not going to argue, I would like to add:

1.) I, too, support artists and small business owners and I agree that they should have assistance or another means of following regulations and protocols than that of large scale multi-national toy corporations, but ... they should both follow the same safety standards. It is just as likely or possible that a handmade (sold at: craft show, independent store, etc) toy could have a small part that comes loose and is a choking hazard or other problem as it is on a toy that is mass produced in China for sale under the PlaySkool/Fisher Price/PARENTS/Leap Frog/ETC... name.

2.) The CPSC did not have any say in this new legislation. The new standards, directives and catalog listing requirements were a direct result of congressional hearings and congressional mandates. To go about change or modification of these new standards it is appropriate to contact your local congressional representative. The CPSC is a regulatory agency, they do not make legislation, they follow it. This posting and that on Cool Mom Picks was misleading and wrong on this particular issue.

3.) There have been many public hearings, open to the public and free for the CPSC to obtain information from consumers on this specific issue of how new standards are going to effect consumers and business owners. I spoke to my CPSC-employed family member about this issue and shared this entry. His comment back to me was, "where were these people when we were holding public hearings, I've never heard about these concerns." Therefore, if you really want to help small toy makers and small toy businesses, consider posting some actions that they can take to get their side of this issue heard. I can provide you with a contact at the CPSC so that concerns can be read and heard by active listeners. Please email me for further information on that issue if you wish to seek out this info.

Finally, the CPSC is hardly comparable to the CIA. To equate the two is stooping to sensationalism and muckraking-journalism.

The CPSC website is www.cpsc.gov

[Liz]

Stacy, I really appreciate the correction in terms of the role of the CPSC in all of this and will post a correction immediately.

I would have loved to have known about public hearings - unfortunately I never heard about them until just now.

Where exactly did anyone compare the CPSC to the CIA?

[lildb]

Liz, thank you for writing this post. As someone who is a small-business owner, with all of the perspective and insight that goes along with being that person, particularly because I've created and sold a number of garments and products for children's use, I can say that you speak for me. I pour my heart into every product I make, because if something were to occur negatively as a result of being in possession of that item for the consumer, my heart would break. (Well, and there's the whole my-small-business relies-totally-on-word-of-mouth and-every-customer-counts bit.)

I fail to see why giant government-created agencies get to be treated like they have feelings, and even *if* you'd compared the CPSC to the CIA, why that should be upsetting to any persons remotely related to the CPSC, let alone be considered sensationalism -- as for muckraking, I'm a fan of it. It's how light gets shone on underhanded political scheming. Muckrake away, my friend.

Stacy, not to attack your words; I simply don't think your family member's participation in the CPSC merits your criticism of my fellow MOMocrat's (informed) stance. I don't think it's too much to ask those who would pick apart the writing of those of us who take high-profile positions on issues to take better care in dissecting our arguments; nowhere did Liz compare the agency of CPSC to the CIA agency. Please? Take more care when you argue your side. To not do so simply makes your entire argument look weak and untenable.

lildb/Debbie Gorman
Momocrat contributor

[flower girl dress]

i am totally agree with the point which the authors want to express regarding home made kids toy and clothes , i just love them they are cheap and easy to get i mean they are not expensive like the other ones.

[Mark Riffey]

One of the biggest problems with the CPSIA is that it is so widespread.

It isnt just toys. Its diapers, children's furniture, photography props, clothing, booties, bibs and a litany of other items too numerous to mention.

But it goes deeper than that. Just to pick a ballpark figure, lets assume there are 100,000 businesses making homemade products for children that will have to close because of this law (as currently written).

Where do those 100,000 business owners spend their dollars for supplies, food, gasoline, pizzas, and office supplies? At other small businesses in YOUR town.

Want to go further? Consider these questions: Where do their employees shop? Where do those employees go if they lose their jobs? Jobs are scarce as it is, especially mom-friendly jobs like so many of these businesses offer.

Even if you arent in the kids product business, you'd better care about the impact of this law because the impact is far more widespread than most consider and very few folks know about it - despite blogs like this one and mine.

[Mark Riffey]

Regarding Stacy's family member's question about hearings, part of the issue is that there arent any lobbyists for small businesses in these industries. The trade organizations for them are tiny and not well-established. These owners are all balancing a zillion plates - so watching the CPSC is not exactly on their daily todo list (say hello to google alerts).

Public hearings are of little use for individual business owners who dont have the time and $ to travel to DC (or arent nearby) and hope to have a chance to speak. Clearly no one in Congress thought of small business when this law was created, so the fault doesnt just fall on the CPSC.

One aside about the CPSC being blameless in this: The law is somewhat detailed about something, but leaves some of the policy making up to CPSC itself. Even though Congress made it clear in their statements regarding justification of this law that they dont trust the CPSC to create and administer these rules without oversight, they still left them some leeway to do just that. Thats one thing that most dont notice about Congress' statements about this law - it was created partly in reaction to the failure of the CPSC to do their job. Read their statements before you flame. Feinstein and Klobuchar are 2 good places to start if you're looking for senatorial statements to research that claim.

All that aside, please call your reps about the small business impact of this law. Emails and faxes are too easy to ignore.

[Mom101]

Terrific comments Mark - and great post on your blog. I've added it to the resource page at Cool Mom Picks.

Indeed the legislation goes further than I think we realized at first glance. It will impact thrift shops, ebay shops, garage sales, big and small retailers... every family on a budget who buys items used (or sells their old stuff) is starting to catch wind of this too.

We've been getting wind that congress is interested in fixing this. Let's hope that's the case.

[Stacy]

I wanted to clarify that there was a typo that Liz has since fixed where the title read CPSCIA ...
after my comment and some emailing back and forth she saw her error and fixed it.

I still see both sides of this argument as very valid.

I adore handmade toys and products and have much respect for the makers and crafters who design and sell them, however, I do also want anything that I buy for my child to be safe and age appropriate. I happen to know the safety standards that toys are put through and I am able to examine a toy myself and decide if it is safe for my one year old, many people are not aware and children can be injured.

[Hand Me Downs]

Hi,

Thanks for posting this info. I am immediately gonna write a letter about this to our Senator.

[x-ray fluorescence]

Hi,
Nice post.I really appreciate the correction in terms of the role of the CPSC in all of this and will post a correction immediately.
I would have loved to have known about public hearings - unfortunately I never heard about them until just now.

[Charlotte]

Although our business in not effected by this law we do believe the law is badly written and yes our legislators are responsible. This law was, in my opinion, a knee jerk reaction to a horrible situation that they, the legislators, were in no small part responsible for.

The problem is that the testing that they are requiring will drive up the cost of an item to inflated prices. They could add $800 to a normally $10 item. If the ingredients used to produce the final product are safe then the product should be safe. This same logic should be applied here. The problem has never been American produced products, it's only when the big businesses in this country (aided in no small part by our legislators who rewarded such companies) took American jobs and "off-shored" them in Chinese sweet factories that these problems started cropping up. Legislation needs to be well thought out not created to cover one's exposed hinny. Which I believe is the case here.
Perhaps we, as American citizens, need to also take responsibility for electing officials who do not, for the most part make good choices for us and our country. To often they act in responsive to a crisis rather then acting proactively before a crisis. But I guess this is what we get when we are more interested in voting for American Idol then we are in voting for good representatives.

[x-ray fluorescence]

I've been worried about this too, I still stand to lose a big chunk of my market if worse comes to worse.
I really hope the act can be changed to protect both handmade toys AND kids from unsafe products....

[Fashion Bug Coupons Chick]

It is terrible that we are poisoning our children the way that we do with toys, bottles, etc.

[special offer]

Safe toys now. I'm behind you.

[kids chair]

I just came across this post and I am really glad that I did. I would want to know that every toy that my child and every child receives is safe.

[Gael Stubbs]

The problems is that this law is not going to make your child safe. It will however destroy the creators of safe toys here in the USA. Most of the people who create these one of a kind toys have been successfully driven out of business and your kids aren't any safer. Quit depending on the government to make you safe (they won't and can't). As a parent it is up to you to make your kids safe.

The testing they are requiring is not necessary if we're using products in our designs that have already been deemed safe. DUHHHHH To bad the government doesn't care about Small American businesses.

[Mom101]

Thanks so much for your comment Gael. Obviously we're in total agreement that the law doesn't make your child safe and that this whole thing is ill-conceived.

But I'm not ready to make a blanket statement like "the government doesn't care about Small American business." Over the past several months since I wrote this post, I've seen lots of congressional letters and scrambling to try and fix this. Our government is made of many many different people and many of them have been great supporters of amending the CPSIA.

I also have no issues with safety regulations as a whole. I just want the ones we have to be smart and reasonable and, as you said - to actually make our children safe! This ain't it.

[pari sportifs]

thank you

[Unibet]

Very interesting, thanks !