Now, I'd be the first to jump on board and say that lead exposure is a good thing to be worried about, but the CPSIA seems to have taken a good idea and acted on it quite blindly. My favorite examples are ones like this, which was featured in a CPSIA article (full article is well worth the read) in the Washington Post:
Jamie Kreisman owns Beka, a small company in St. Paul, Minn., that makes wooden puppet theaters, easels and blocks. Kreisman sent one of his best-selling items, a 68-piece set of natural wood blocks, for lead testing by an independent lab. He paid a U.S. lab $500 to confirm that his unfinished blocks were in fact unfinished blocks.
There literally are not words for the redundancy of such a test, and the redundancy of an Act that would require such a test. But wait, it gets worse.
When I first heard about the CPSIA, I took that to mean that people making clothing and toys for children were virtually going to have to shutter their shops due to the restrictive cost of testing. That was distressing enough. But then I discovered that it extends much farther to school supplies, books, and so on, and would also affect thrift and consignment stores. It even applies to libraries and children's books. (Charm City Craft Mafia has more on that here. If you only read one link in this blog, read this one. Seriously) And though I'm not a maker of items for children, I think that the CPSC needs a serious dose of reality. Quite frankly, I'm just not sure how well this plan was thought through.
Fortunately, today the CPSC announced that it will be allowing a one-year suspension of the testing while it reviews the CPSIA and the planned methods of enforcing the CPSIA. And while a sigh of relief can be heard from the entire crafting and handmade community, it ain't over yet. The folks at Etsy have this to say about it:
We are so pleased that artisans and vintage sellers got their voices heard. Your hard work is not over; we must continue to play a role in advocating for small business people throughout the coming year.
Read the full article and CPSC press release over at Etsy.
So many people out there have said it and said it better, but I hope that the review of the CPSIA proves fruitful. To place such an onerous burden on small business owners and entrepreneurs seems to me to show complete ignorance of the reality of small business. And more frightening, it demonstrates a complete lack of appreciation for all the beautiful and functional art that is being created.
I think that Sweet Pepita sums it up best in her blog on the matter:
If our country bans handmade children's toys and clothing and books and God knows what else due to the prohibitively expensive cost of testing, we will lose a huge part of our history. We will lose stories. We'll lose the connection between maker and owner. Our relationship with the ordinary and special things in our life will become meaningless. What would a sociologist or historian have left to study? What would they have to say about a completely homogenized childhood?
I'm not the first to speak up about this. Hell, I even missed the blog-in two days ago. But it's well worth speaking up for. And so I urge you to help these artists and crafters. Write a letter, send an email, sign a petition, or post a blog. The links below can point you in the right direction.
Useful links if you're interested in helping support handmade children's products and the people who make and sell them:
To read more than you can likely understand about the CPSIA, visit this US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) website.
The Handmade Toy Alliance has a great summary of the CPSIA, including why it's right and why it's wrong. They also have a petition for you to sign and a Facebook group for you to join.
Visit Etsy to learn ways you can help.
Momsrising.org has a convenient form email (which you can edit to your heart's content) that you can send to the CSPC. You don't even have to be a mom to send it.
