Vote for CPSIA on Change.gov

Thanks for the terrifc comment. Go to Change.gov and click on the “open for questions” tab under the main graphic. Then enter CPSIA and about 13 questions will come up. Please vote for them. It takes about one minute to register with the site and is well worth your time! There is a link to change.gov in the blog roll at right.

How does big business eliminate the competition….use the government

One more thought on the CPSIA….laws, guidelines and regulations already existed regarding lead content in toys. A few large manufacturers and their overseas plants cut corners and created this issue. Now small American businesses are being affected and could go out of business due to the costs involved in adhering to the new regulations…while the large businesses who created this mess go on. Makes you wonder…

Save Small Business from the CPSIA

Please vote to have this law ammended.  It affects small business, which is the backbone of this new economy.  You can vote at Change.org – see link in Blogroll at right.

Read on about what the CPSIA has done, why and how it affects many types of small business owners.  This is from the Handmade Toy Alliance.

A Proposal From the handmadetoyalliance.org:

In 2007, large toy manufacturers who outsource their production to China and other developing countries violated the public’s trust. They were selling toys containing dangerously high lead content, unsafe small parts, and chemicals that made kids sick.

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 children’s products, mandates third party testing and certification, and requires manufacturers of all goods for children under the age of 12, to permanently label each item with a date and batch number.

All of these changes will be fairly easy for large, multinational companies to comply with. Large manufacturers who make thousands of units of each item have very little incremental cost to pay for testing and updating their systems to include batch labels. Small businesses however, will likely be driven out of business by the costs of mandatory testing, to the tune of as much as $4,000 or more per item. And the few larger manufacturers 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.

Anyone who produces or sells any of the following new or used items will be required to comply with the law: toys, books, clothing, art, educational supplies, materials for the learning disabled, bicycles, and more. Any uncertified item intended for children under the age of 12 will be considered contraband after February 10, 2009. It will be illegal to sell or give these items away to charities, and the government will require their destruction or permanent disposal, resulting in millions of tons of unnecessary waste, and placing an enormous strain on our landfills.

There is a clear disconnect between the sweeping nature of this law, and the narrow range of products that were problematic in 2007. The CPSIA applies standards that were put in place in reaction to the sale of toys contaminated with lead paint and toxic plastics. Rather than focus on these materials, this law places a guilty until proven innocent mentality on all children’s product producers by imposing mandatory testing and certification, and in the process will kill an entire industry.

Thriving small businesses are crucial to the financial health of our nation. Let’s amend the CPSIA so that all businesses large and small are able to comply and survive!

 For more information you can visit the Consumer Product Safety Commisons information page.  It’s in true government speak so they take up a whole lot of space without really telling you anything.