posted January 14, 2009 08:16 AM         

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Dear Customers,

This is a very important email, please read:

On February 10, 2009, a new law called the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) goes into effect that threatens to put A Toy Garden, many other specialty toy stores, and thousands of handmade crafters (think of sellers on etsy.com, ebay.com, etc.) in the US & around the world out of business. Here’s my non-legal interpretation of the law: The law's beginnings had honorable intentions - keeping children safe from lead and phthalates - however, the way the law was written would require such extensive testing that most small and many medium-size vendors would have to go out of business, and we would only be able to sell toys from very large manufacturers who did the testing. If I could not sell the extensive selection of handmade toys I currently offer, I would choose to go out of business as I am unwilling to only sell mass manufactured toys. There are already some European companies (like Selecta) who have reviewed the law, seen how impossible it would be to follow, and have chosen to pull out of the US market.

How can this be, you might ask? The law requires each batch of any product that children under 12 might use to be tested for lead and phthalates. Everything, whether it contains plastic or anything that might contain lead, must be tested for phthalate and lead content. Even unfinished wooden toys! For example, many of you love our Herbal Play Bean Bags. Based on internet research and prices quoted to other craftspeople for similar approved independent product testing (as required by CPSIA), I estimate it would cost about $2100 to get a set of bean bags tested (8 colors of batik 100% cotton fabric, 16 different spools of thread, kidney beans, organic dried lavender, chamomile, and peppermint: 28 tests x $75 per test). Since I buy new fabric several times per year, and the fabric patterns are usually a little different each time, I’d need to retest the whole bean bag set several times per year. I would also have to “batch label” each batch of bean bags I made and provide official certification that they meet all the regulations. These testing costs would become the largest cost of making bean bags (more than any of the materials or labor) and make their cost so ridiculously high that we'd probably never sell any. OK, you may be willing to make your own bean bags, but the same holds true for handmade dolls, gnomes, fairies, felted items, dress-up garments, wooden vehicles, puzzles, baskets (there are no two alike so we’d have to test each one!), etc. All of our prices would go through the roof, because we'd have to pass all these costs along to our customers in order to stay in business.

The good news is that the CPSC is considering some exemptions for natural materials such as cotton, wool, silk, and wood, however none of the exemptions can be finalized until the Act becomes law on February 10th. We joined the recently formed Handmade Toy Alliance – a group of hundreds of small U.S. toy manufacturers/retailers to help lobby and spread the word through the government, media, and to the public about the potentially devestating effects of the law on conscientious small businesses. The economy has caused many of us to suffer but this law threatens to force us to break the law or simply close our businesses.

What you can do:

Go to handmadetoyalliance.org to read up on the law and many current news articles and press coverage about the law as well as signing the HTA petition. If you are a toy maker/seller, please join the HTA.

Go to change.org to vote for this issue to be one of the top 10 issues the Obama administration will look into. It will just take a couple minutes, you’ll need to register with your name and email address, then click on the email from them to confirm your registration, then go back to the website to place your vote. A couple steps but it is worth it and every vote is vital. This issue is currently #4 on the list.

Follow the links and print out the forms at the Handmade Toy Alliance’s website to write, email and call your congresspeople. This is important and is having an affect. All but 1 member of Congress voted for this law but most hadn't read and didn't understand it when they voted for it!
Thank you for your business past & present. We hope to be here to serve you in the future.

Sincerely,

Sonya

Please visit our online store at: www.aToyGarden.com
& forward this email to your friends!

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posted January 14, 2009 10:04 PM         

Subject:
Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act CLOSES CONSIGNMENT STORES

To:
Rep. Pete Sessions

January 14, 2009

I am writing to ask your immediate assistance to deal with an urgent problem relating to the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 (CPSIA).

The CPSIA legislation was an important contribution in efforts to strengthen product safety laws to make sure only safe and compliant children's products are sold. While well-intentioned, if the CPSIA goes into effect unaltered on February 10, 2009, it will force children's resale and consignment shops to close immediately. Not for profit thrift stores will have to discontinue their children's departments, greatly affecting their charitable works. This will also have a very negative impact on the environment.

Because permanent marks/tracking labels are not mandatory in garments until August 14, 2009, how will our stores verify the chain of custody necessary to identify which garments ARE compliant? Since we deal in mainly one-of-a-kind items, it is impossible to test our inventory as the testing process is destructive. We have ALWAYS fully understood that manufacturers are required to test for lead, not resellers, but how is a store to know definitively if a product violates the lead requirements unless it tests? Yet CPSC states in a press release, "Those resellers that do sell products in violation of the new limits could face civil and/or criminal penalties." Quite a dilemma!

With the retroactive ruling on the lead standard the resale industry will be faced with tons and tons of children's products that cannot be legally sold after February 9, 2009. We cannot wave a magic wand and make them disappear. They will end up in the landfills! The waste will not end there, but will continue for years to come when consumers try to discard items they currently have in their homes that they can no longer sell or donate.

Going one step further, when children's resale and consignment stores have to close, consumers will drop children's products at thrift stores—even though they publicize they are no longer accepting children's items—forcing thrifts to dispose of a vast volume of merchandise at a great expense. This will seriously deplete the funds they work so hard to raise for the worthy causes they support.

It does not appear that the impact to the secondary market was considered. It could not have been Congress' intent to destroy all resale businesses associated with children's products and have such disregard for the environment. With the current state of the economy, the resale industry provides an affordable alternative for people to provide for their children and provides the best outlet for recycling items that are still safe and very useful.

We urge Congress and the CPSC to work with the National Association of Resale & Thrift Shops (NARTS) toward a solution that will Save Children's Resale! We are in favor of better safety standards but do not feel they should be designed to threaten the viability of our industry. These terrible burdens need to be relaxed to make it possible to conduct a safe, appropriate and healthy business supplying children's products.

Thank you for considering my views on this urgent matter.