Saving Handmade Toys

I’ve been noticing this issue about handmade toys floating around the blogosphere and I finally figured out what it is: The Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA). Apparently this bill was written with the issues about lead in toys from China in mind, but what it does is force anyone selling a toy to have it tested by a third-party testing company.

/sigh.

Sometimes I wish that our representatives would think things through. Does this bill specify toys made in other countries? No. Does it exclude hand-made toys little grandmas make and sell on Etsy? No. Does it exempt small businesses? No. So the issue is that, under this law, if either of my lovely sisters-in-law made and sold one of the many beautiful things they knit/sew to a consumer as a toy, they would be in danger of a lawsuit from the Consumer Product Safety Commission.

So, click on the teddy bear to write a letter to your congressperson. I didn’t like the “sample” letter they wrote, so mine is pasted below. And, I guess, make/buy/sell as many handmade toys as you can before the cutoff date, which is February 9, 2010, and let’s all groan together about ridiculous law-making.  Click the link below to see the letter I sent.

Honorable [So and So]:
This is regarding the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA), an act that was conceived with the health of our children in mind but whose implementation will damage legitimate small businesses while not really solving the issue of toys that are unsafely manufactured in China.

Laws that encourage safety are important, but laws that encourage litigiousness rather than their intended function simply put a burden on individuals, a burden on small businesses and a further burden on one segment of the U.S. economy.

Let’s face it: the testing of American-made toys has, up to this point, been quite successful. Cheap goods made overseas and under the laws of a different country are the problem. Please do not punish U.S. businesses and artisans with a bill like the Consumer Product Improvement Act. Further testing of toys made overseas is a much smarter option, while trusting that the laws already in place for businesses here are sufficient and sufficiently enforced. At the very least, artisans who make and sell homemade goods should be exempt from laws of this sort.

I enjoy and frequent shops full of uniquely-crafted, artisan or home-made toys, and find them to be some of the safest toys to buy. They are often made with wood or plain cloth, and have none of the toxicity of mass-produced toys from China. My fear is that this bill, rather than controlling the mass-produced, toxic toys, will actually strengthen those companies, since third-party testing is cheap when you make 100,000 toys, but very, very expensive when you only make 10.

Please reconsider this bill, and ask the Consumer Product Safety Commission to re-examine and make some exclusions to the law as they continue the rule-making process. As a parent and as a consumer, I want safe toys for my children — but I don’t want the Consumer Product Improvement Act as it stands.

Thank you for your time.
[Me]