CPSIA + Handmade
Many of you probably have heard about this, but in case you haven’t, there’s a debate going on about the impact of the new Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act on small businesses. It is scheduled to go into effect February 9.
The Act was intended to address toy quality concerns after the recall of toys from China that contained toxic substances. It’s important to note that the new requirements introduced by the Act are designed to target the quality control of large-scale manufacturing concerns. That’s great, but what isn’t is that the new rules and testing standards also affect small producers of toys and clothing. Sellers who produce handmade or small production items for children are finding themselves in a quandary: they, too, have to prove their items are free of toxins X, Y and Z, a process often costing thousands of dollars that they can’t afford for products that were never in danger of being toxic.
It’s an interesting dilemma – no one wants children to be poisoned, but we should still be able to somehow have a market doesn’t stifle small producers through inappropriately targeted legislation. For more, you can visit the Handmade Toy Alliance, or visit Cool Mom Pick which is doing the Save Handmade button campaign (the button I posted here) and has actions to take and resources, or read this Open Letter from Etsy, or this article from the Craft Zine,
