We interrupt this regularly scheduled baby blog for some sad news regarding the state of Mountain Aven Baby and tens of thousand of other small businesses. Chances are, most of you have not heard of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act that is to take affect February 10. Well, time to read up and pick up a phone (or pen!). This piece of legislation is intended to protect children in the United States from the harmful affects of cheaply made toys and clothing. Remember the lead scare of 2007? Right. Well, unfortunately the law is very poorly written (intentionally or unintentionally, depending on your viewpoint) and will make it illegal for businesses like mine to operate. This law states that any product intended for children under twelve be thoroughly tested for harmful by-products like lead and phthalates. This includes handmade clothing. Not surprisingly, this legislation was sponsored by some of the largest toy retailers-- Wal Mart and Target, who only stand to gain. The largest toy makers are likely the only ones who can bear the cost of such testing without raising their prices significantly. Go figure.
So what's the future of small businesses like mine? That's not entirely clear, though it doesn't look good. But it's not too late to have a say! PLEASE CLICK HERE or on the "Save Handmade" link to the left for more information about the law itself and what you can do to stop it!
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2 comments:
The problem with the clicks you offer is they've gone out of their way to cut anyone not making toys, out of the process. A word change here or there is patronizing; they refuse to amend the document on change.org. Apparel people are well organized and have been working on this longer and unarguably more productively than HTA. You might want to check out what other apparel people are doing. There's lots of information as applied to apparel specifically on www.fashion-incubator.com. We also have a forum where we're working on counterproposals that reflect our interests. http://fashion-incubator.com/phpbb/viewforum.php?f=32
THANK YOU for the heads up, i will check out the link and more apparel specific stuff. i was actually wondering why the coolmoms link never mentioned clothing, come to think of it. argh. the whole thing is one absurb mess.
but here's what i don't get... why would toymakers (or those associated with the links i included) NOT want apparel people in the mix? the more the merrier right? strength in numbers or something like that?
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