The first thing I read about the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) sounded like uninformed panic. (No, it wasn't on your blog, I promise.)
So I kind of ignored the whole deal for awhile. But then I started hearing about it from people who had rational concerns. I thought I'd better see what the fuss was about.
Megan at SortaCrunchy summarizes the issue nicely:
In response to the alarming number of toy recalls in 2007 in which toys that contained dangerous amounts of lead and other harmful chemicals or posed other safety risks to our children were pulled from store shelves, the United States Congress passed the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) in August 2008. This act is certainly a first step towards protecting our children from harmful or dangerous products in that it mandates more rigorous testing of the toys we allow into our homes.
The CPSIA, however, would also impose such a terrible financial burden on any maker of toys that small, cottage-industry toymakers in the USA, Canada, and Europe will be driven out of business.
So I'm looking into it further. And, of course, I'll let you know what I find out. But it sounds like handmade toys might need us to come to their rescue after all.
P.S. In case you're wondering about Bold Avenue - we checked on this, and the company that handles the printing/fulfillment of our baby and kids products does have a product testing program in place.
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Photo by me.
First of all - cute picture!!
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing your perspective. The thing that concerns me at this point is that the span of this seems to reach far beyond toys and threatens so many handmade items. I completely understand the need for consumer product safety reforms, but it just seems this goes to the other extreme with no rational consideration to all of the implications.
Thanks for posting!
BEAR! ♥
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