Monday, January 5, 2009

Save Handmade Toys



from Handmade Toy Alliance website:
In 2007, large toy manufacturers who outsource their production to China and other developing countries violated the public's trust. They were selling toys with dangerously high lead content, toys with unsafe small part, toys with improperly secured and easily swallowed small magnets, and toys made from chemicals that made kids sick. Almost every problem toy in 2007 was made in China.

The United States Congress rightly recognized that the Consumer Products Safety Commission (CPSC) lacked the authority and staffing to prevent dangerous toys from being imported into the US. So, they passed the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) in August, 2008. 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.

For small American, Canadian, and European toymakers and manufacturers of children's products, however, the costs of mandatory testing will likely drive them out of business.

* A toymaker, for example, who makes wooden cars in his garage in Maine to supplement his income cannot afford the $4,000 fee per toy that testing labs are charging to assure compliance with the CPSIA.
* A work at home mom in Minnesota who makes cloth diapers to sell online must choose either to violate the law or cease operations.
* A small toy retailer in Vermont who imports wooden toys from Europe, which has long had stringent toy safety standards, must now pay for testing on every toy they import.
* And even the handful of larger toy makers who still employ workers in the United States face increased costs to comply with the CPSIA, even though American-made toys had nothing to do with the toy safety problems of 2007.

The CPSIA simply forgot to exclude the class of children's goods that have earned and kept the public's trust: Toys, clothes, and accessories made in the US, Canada, and Europe. The result, unless the law is modified, is that handmade children's products will no longer be legal in the US.

Please visit Handmade Toy Alliance for more information.

20 comments:

  1. I've been reading about this in the Etsy forums, but I had no idea that the testing cost so much!
    Hopefully this will get amended.

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  2. I read about this on Etsy. I really think that an amendment is in order. There's no way, with this economy that we shouldn't be able to support the little guy.

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  3. I've signed the petition, and so has Grey. I really hope lawmakers wise up.

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  4. well done! I already blogged about this as well. We keep getting the word out, hopefully the bill will fail.

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  5. I signed the petitions, sent emails and blogged about this topic as well. I'm very concerned with what will happen to a lot of my peers who make items targeted specifically to kids, myself included. I will not be able to afford the testing required by the current state of the legislation, therefore, I will no longer be able to sell onesies on Etsy or at Blue 7.

    Do you have a plan for your items yet?

    ebscrafts at gmail dot com

    Truly,
    Amy

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  6. Thanks for the info. I'm off to read more about it. Doesn't seem right.

    Off this subject: What websites do you find your unique fabrics on?

    -chelsey

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  7. I don't sell children's items but this whole thing just makes me sick.

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  8. wow! that's a huge impact. I hope that an amendment can be passed -- it would be terrible to lose all those toy makers like those on etsy!

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  9. I've been reading all about this, and I know that there was an article in the Storque about etsy getting envolved. Hopefully everything will get sorted out.

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  10. Good luck to all of you kids' toys and clothes makers!

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  11. I hoping that with positive thinking and support this will change. With all of the small business owners out there, they will have to rethink this a little more thoroughly. It is ridiculous..

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  12. They need to change that and go after the ones selectively who are the offenders.

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  13. This whole idea is just absurd! I can understanding wanting to keep our children safe, but when it comes to things that are handmade by people who are more than likely parents, what's the deal? Make the testing for foreign made toys more stringent! Jeez.
    On another note, beautiful blog!

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  14. Well put. Up to this point, a lot of what I've read has been very wordy and (frankly) boring to read. Yours post is simple and puts things into relatable terms.

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  15. Great post, thanks for helping to spread awareness. So many people still haven't heard about the CPSIA and the lack of awareness is really frustrating, sometimes it feels hopeless.

    The cost of testing really is insane, amendments to this legislation are desperately needed.

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  16. This is so strange and destressing. I hope enough noise is made that there's a closer look at things. Lawmakers need to realize its not the crafters that put lead and crap in children's items, its these mindless overseas factories that are the problem. And the government wont even take the time to test all the junk coming over in huge ships...oy...it makes my head hurt! I hope that this doesnt kill our handmade movement. That would be so sad.

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  17. It is such a shame that the costs are so high. Keeping my fingers crossed for a good outcome:)

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  18. You've been tagged! Check out my blog for details!

    Hyla

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  19. That's absurd! Completely ass backwards! Like telling us to eat at Applebees instead of at a friend's house.

    I wonder if the Amish get around this one?

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