New Toy Safety Law Not So Green?
The Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) passed late last year will take affect in just under 30 days on February 1oth will dramatically affect how toys are both manufactured and sold. All toy manufacturers, importers and sellers are required to have their tested to ensure that they do contain high levels on lead. The new law will require that all toys sold contain less that 600 ppm of lead. That number will lower in August to 300 ppm. Also, after the February 10th date, certain toys cannot contain more than 0.1% of certain phtalates. This new law seems like it has all good intentions, but could actually cause more harm that good. Small toy retailers and manufacturers could go out of business, even if they are producing high quality or natural toys.
What about Small Businesses?
A huge component of this new act is to ensure that all toy manufacturers get all of their toys tested for lead before they can be sold to the public. The biggest problem with this piece of the law is that many small toy manufacturers and toy stores do not make huge profits on many of their toys they manufacturer and are often homemade. It would just cost way too much money for them to have every one of their products inspected. The cost to have a toy inspected can range anywhere from a few hundred dollars to as much as $4000. I would hope that the intention of this bill is not to put small toy manufacturers out of business just because they can’t afford to pay for inspections on their toys. Usually smaller toy manufacturers use more quality products and to require that they products go through these types of restrictions just seems ridiculous.
High Penalties
A huge complaint that many have with this new law is the high penalties associated with not complying with it. Any violation of this new law can result in a penalty as high as $100,000 and/or 5 years in prison. Those are some stiff penalties considering that offenses involving cruelty towards animals and polluting the environment don’t seem to be anywhere near as severe. The intention of this Act seems to be in the right place, but it just seems way to harsh, especially towards smaller business and toy manufacturer’s.
Thrift And Consignment Shops
There are provisions in the new law that state that resellers of toys such as thrift and consignment shops will not have to have toys tested like others, but still face the same penalties if toys are sold with levels of lead higher than the required threshold. This part of the bill just seems crazy to me. Why would you still impose the same restrictions to resellers when they do not know exactly how high the lead content is in all of the toys sold in their stores? Imagine if a thrift store makes a mistake and accidently sells a toy that is just over the limit. It would most likely put their store out of business.
On first look of this bill, it seems like a wonderful idea to reduce the amount of lead and use of PVC in our childrens’ toys, but at what cost? Many small businesses that are already struggling to make it in this tough economy are going to have to jump over another hurdle. Even though the original intention of this bill was to be focused at large manufacturer’s of toys, there is nothing in this bill protecting small toy companies. The sad part of this entire thing is that many of the small toy companies are aimed at providing either quality toys or toys made from organic and natural products. It’s is horrible that the lawmakers only seem to care about the positive press that they will receive from “fighting back against dangerous lead” and “protecting our children”.
Please share your thougts on this new law and if you are at all affected by it.
