Fight for your right to craft(y) January 12
A new law scheduled to go in effect February 10th in the U.S. may limit or prohibit many hand crafted toy makers to continue selling their products. The Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act will mandate intensive testing procedures for toys and clothing designed for children under the age of 12. The law is designed to look detect lead and other harmful substances in childrens items, but the expense of this testing may be too much for small scale operations to bear.
Its reported that such third party tests can run as high $50,000 which puts it out of reach for all but the biggest companies. Crafters and small businesses are up in arms trying to modify this law, which many say was rushed through congress.
For more information, and to get involved, go to Etsy and The Handmade Toy Alliance and sign the petition.
Great items like Mosey’s upcycled elf hat and Woodmouse’s Tweet Birdie Duet Wood Toy Set could be in danger of not meeting the new guidelines…
January 12th, 2009 at 4:36 am
I read about this law a while back, I am surprised it took Etsy so long to come around to its ramifications. Although the intentions of this law are good, it’s written by people who shouldn’t be trusted with such powers. This collective punishment due to the acts of a few needs to be resolved in other ways. For instance, the government still sells cigarettes and alcohol and I can guarantee you that they cause far more harm than any product out of China no matter how lead laden it is.
Coal power plants also pollute the air with their mercury and their wastes contaminate huge swaths of land but let’s go after the people making toys (???). Silly!
Jon
http://WoodMarvels.com - Create Unique Memories
January 12th, 2009 at 2:08 pm
Thanks for helping to get the word out and for including my bird duet.