As you may or may not know, Alison (One of our stylists upstairs) is very creative and over the winter she participates in a lot of craft shows and sells her handmade things. Some of the things she uses to make her "Bedtime Buddies" require her to purchase books or stuffed animals. Because this particular item is for children she became concerned and wrote letters and signed the petitions. This is her response from Senator Patty Murray.....
Dear Mrs. Cook:
Thank you for contacting me regarding H.R. 4040, the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008, sponsored by Rep. Bobby Rush (D-IL-1), which became public law on August 14, 2008. I appreciate hearing from you about this important issue.
As you know, the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) strengthened safety regulations on children's products, particularly regarding the amount of lead and certain phthalates they are allowed to contain. CPSIA mandates that children's products containing more than 600 parts per million (ppm) total lead cannot be sold on or after February 10, 2009, even if they were manufactured before that date. On August 14, 2009, the total amount of allowable lead content per product drops to 300 ppm.
CPSIA requires that domestic manufacturers and importers certify that children's products made after February 10, 2009 meet all new safety standards, including the lead restriction. Sellers of used children's products, such as thrift or consignment stores or "resellers", do not have to certify that those products meet the new lead limits or toy standards.
Although resellers are not required to test children's products for compliance with the new lead limits, H.R. 4040 prohibits resellers from selling children's products that exceed the lead limits. Therefore, resellers are avoiding selling products that are likely to have lead content, unless they have testing or other information to indicate those products contain less lead than the new limit allows.
I understand that the regulations enacted in CPSIA will require sellers of children's products to meet high standards of safety and certification. As we move forward in the 111thCongress, I will closely monitor this situation and be in touch with the CPSC regarding the feedback you provided and concerns from businesses about the new regulations. I share your concerns that these regulations could put hard-working business owners out of business, and I will continue to talk to the CPSC and my Senate colleagues about your concerns. Thank you for contacting me, and please feel free to contact me again in the future.
I hope all is well in Everett.
I keep reading all these blogs and looking at websites about this issue and I continue to get more and more confused. I'm starting to get certificates of compliance from some of my manufacturers, which is great. But I really don't know what category, as a retail store (not consignment) I fall in to. I am assuming "reseller".
We take great pride in providing super high quality products for our customers. All of our manufacturers that are providing certificates to us are showing that. Yay!
Here are a few questions to ponder though. Why do clothing manufacturers need to provide a Certificate of Compliance for their clothing (or hair clips, bibs, blankets or nursing covers for that matter).... anything used by a child 12 or under.... when laundry detergent doesn't have to provide the same? It defeats the purpose if the fabric and embellishments pass the test only for you to go home and wash it in what might have a higher lead or phthalate content in it. Also, If you purchase anything usedyou have no idea what it has been exposed to whether that is detergent or it has been hanging in the closet of a 100 year old home that contains lead paint. Hello?
I am 100% all for safe products for children. I have two small children. But holy cow, this testing process is a little nutty. It's grossly expensive, there are no testing facilities in the United States From what I understand) and you can't test everything that a child is going to be exposed to and touch throughout and average day. Crayons, yes. Toys, ok.
Sofa, detergent, fork, cup, remote, bookcase, step stool, hairbrush, computer, video games, carpet, flooring, beds.......... ? It reminds me of this commercial for Kleenex.