CPSIA Goes Into Effect Today, RIP Handmade Toys

It is ironic that the same day the Senate is poised to sign the Economic Stimulus Bill is the same day that the day the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act takes effect. While I'm very much in favor of the intent behind this legislation, this act is unfortunately shutting down independent US (and Canadian) made children's toys and clothing manufactures as we speak. We’ll still have Mattel and all that crap from China but we won’t have handcrafted toys, like my daughter’s wooden play kitchen, which was made in New Hampshire by a honest-to-God cabinet-maker and sealed with a hand-rubbed all-natural beeswax finish, because apparently we can’t write a bill that offers exemptions to these types of toy manufacturers. You know, the toys that have stood the test of time, the toys that we all claim we wish kids still played with, well there has been an explosion of these types of toy producers on the internet through websites like Etsy and Hyena Cart and other handmade sites over the last 5 years. Unfortunately, these sellers tend to be small (like one employee small) and in business both because they love to make things with their hands and also because they need to make ends meet. Sometimes they work other jobs, sometimes they are lucky enough to make a product that has captured the attention of enough people to support themselves and their families from their efforts. These are the same folks who can’t afford to pay the thousands of dollars worth of lead testing that the act requires. However they are also the same manufactures who do the research to make sure the products they use are safe and since they are making them in their homes primarily from natural, non-toxic raw materials, they are safe. While there was a last minute dispensation for libraries and used clothing stores to give Congress a year to figure out if the act should apply to them (and I don’t think it should), Congress did not make that same dispensation cover the thousands of small business people who use non-toxic, natural materials to make quality children's toys and clothes. The big toy importers who pay sweatshop rates to impoverished adults and children over seas will be able to pay for the testing of all the plastic junk they import, but already, shops are closing on the handmade sites and the rest of us are struggling to find the black market where we can continue to buy the toys and clothes we love or we’ll have to make it ourselves. When are we going to get something right in this country?