More Uproar Over Lead Law, Used Children's Products
I've been covering Washington D.C. for a decade now, so I shouldn't be surprised by the continuing furor over sales of clothes, toys and other gear for children aged 12 and younger. New safety standards that take effect Feb. 10 have riled up the resale industry and handcrafters, who say it will be cost prohibitive to certify that children's products are free of phthalates and lead.
I thought that an announcement last week by the Consumer Product Safety Commission that secondhand stores don't have to test children's products would settle the resale side of things. Oh, how wrong I was. From the comments on this blog and emails that I've received, many thrift store owners are far from relieved. The National Association of Resale & Thrift Shops calls the clarification a step in the right direction but is still urging members to petition for an exemption for clothing and shoes for children older than 3.
My understanding of the commission's position, from their announcement and an interview with spokeswoman Patty Davis, is that secondhand stores don't have to test items and that they won't be targeted for selling products that haven't been certified as free from lead or phthalates. Under last year's Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act, it's still illegal to sell children's items that do contain these toxins, however, so the agency is urging the stores to use good judgment in avoiding products that might contain lead or phthalates. For instance, children's jewelry, clothing with buttons of unknown origin, and the like.
Call me crazy, but this strikes me as kind of a reasonable position. As a consumer, I'm not that familiar with the materials used to make different goods. I would certainly rely on a thrift store owner, who every day judges products and clothes as to their value and manufacture, to flag anything that might be suspicious. If an item is in doubt, the store owner should simply not sell it.
It's gross hyperbole for resellers to say that they'll have to dump their entire inventory of children's clothes after Feb. 10 because they don't know what might contain lead. I would hope they use their skills and experience to sort out those items that might be on the borderline, and keep those that present no risk. If there are some items in their inventory that might contain toxins, I'm alarmed!
Either the store owner or the consumer is going to have to bear the risk of products containing hazardous chemicals. As a parent and consumer, I think the retailer should take that responsibility. As for small businesses that produce handmade children's items, and must bear the high cost of certifying that products are toxin free, I sympathize but don't have a good solution.
Do you disagree? Agree? Think I'm off my rocker? Please comment below. Or, take action yourself by signing an e-petition or by contacting your member of Congress, senator or the commission itself.
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Comments
The official press release doesn’t relieve the resale stores. They still could be held criminally liable if they happen to sell product over the limit. This despite not being required to test or comply. How are they supposed to know? Lead has been found on innocuous objects like buttons and rain boots. It renders the exemption as worthless because it is not a true exemption, just political double speak.
Thank you Katherine for your focus on this, but the law still stands complete with imprisonment &/or fine for selling. Would you advise a friend to risk her livelihood, her family, and her very freedom for some vaguely-worded press release?
It’s even in that press release that was designed, think I in my UN-insider view of Washington, MERELY to get those who are protesting to shut up: Paragraph 4:
The new safety law does not require resellers to test ….resellers cannot sell children’s products that exceed the lead limit …Those resellers that do sell products in violation of the new limits could face civil and/or criminal penalties. (Edited, read it all here: http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml09/09086.html )
Solution is simple. Do NOT declare goods that were manufactured and sold under existing law prior to this Act to be, overnight, hazardous substance. Change, by act of Congress, things allowable on Feb 9, to subject to criminal action Feb 10.
I would suggest that if this law continues to be on the books as is, that every parent dump every item used by their children 12 and under at the stroke of midnight Feb 9, since isn’t there a child-endangerment law about clothing your child/ furnishing your child’s toy box etc, with hazardous substances? Oh, I forgot. It’s probably illegal to dispose of hazardous substance without calling your local HAZMAT team.
That statement is no more preposterous than making EACH and EVERY item for children under 12 illegal in RETROSPECT is. Guilty until proven innocent.
Of COURSE we want all children to be safe. Of COURSE we don’t want dangerous chemicals near growing children (or grown ones for that matter!)
But are those Representatives and Senators children/ grandchildren going naked Feb 10…or will their parents/ grandparents buy them all brand-new, manufactured within the last few months, goods… from cotton rompers to bicycles, books to backpacks?
I disagree with you! I am an owner of a children’s resale store. We check every item for recall. We don’t sell anything that we think might be dangerous to children. Do you realize what you said that we should be able to tell if something might have lead or pthalates? Every item with printing on it, cute jeans with decorations or embellishments, buttons, zippers, pageant dresses covered with sequins. There is no way to tell if one of these items might have a trace amount. From everything we have read, these are all items that could maybe have a trace amount. This would subject us to the possibility of criminal charges, fines, and what I haven’t heard mentioned, being sued by a customer. All of this, even if the item does not contain lead or pthalates, only because we don’t know for sure that it does not. Almost all of our over 10,000 items in inventory have some kind of decoration or embellishment. People like their kids clothes to be cute. Just because they are cute, does not mean that they contain lead, but we have no way of knowing 100% that it doesn’t.
Most Americans haven’t bothered to take the time to understand how wide-reaching this law is and the number of different industries that it will affect; nor the thousands of businesses that will close and people put out of work.
Yep, I disagree with you thoroughly.
There is a class action lawsuit in the works - about time say many go here to read about it
http://reformcpsia.org/?p=206
Then also read today’s press releases from The National Association of Resale & Thrift Shops
- http://www.narts.org/press/
Americans need to stop depending on often misleading ’sound bites’ and educate themselves on issues that are often far more complex than made to first appear.
Yes, I agree with the other posters. It is impossible to tell if an item has lead or phthalates in it just by looking at it. Thrift store owners could make a gues when it comes to lead…bright colored or camo paints are commonly lead based, but not always. Would any store owner really want to risk their livliehood on a guess?
I understand that the CPSC is saying they are not targeting thrift store for compliance, but they don’t seem to understand that unless the law is actually reworded, thrift store owners will have no choice than to dump most of their inventory and only accept items made by manufacturers after the regulation went in to place.
HR-4040 is too broad and goes too far in correcting gaps in safety, turning a reasonable concern over safety procedures into a fear of everything in the market today. The range of children’s products regulated by HR-4040 is vast: toys, footwear, carpets, clothing, bedding, luggage, lamps, books, consumer electronics, school supplies, video games, DVDs, office supplies, jewelry, housewares, sports equipment, and so on.
To state that a store owner would have the skills and experience to sort out what items from the list above might present no risk is asking a little too much.
How do you differentiate a used Disney DVD that is safe from one that is not safe? Or a pretty red dress that was manufactured with lead-free dye as opposed to a dress manufactured with dye that had too much lead in the formula?
Yet a toothbrush, which is designed and intended to be placed into a child’s mouth is exempt from the law.
The law is crazy. Granted, I want protection against real risks, but I don’t want to choke our economy with needless regulation that produces nothing, but business inefficiency. It could not have been Congress’ intent to destroy all businesses associated with children’s products, and products that might be used by a child. But that is what will happen if the law is not changed…not just for thrift shops, but everyone in the business of selling children’s products.
I read above that you don’t have a good solution for those handcrafters and small businesses as regards the high cost of testing their wares for lead compliance. I urge you to think a little deeper, because I believe you have fallen victim to the same lack of rigour in your thinking as has our country’s Congress, all in the name of ‘protecting children’. First, I hope you aren’t planning any garage sales in the near future. Because if you are, you will need to test every item in that sale for lead compliance. But this children’s shirt is made of cotton you say? That makes no difference in this law - common sense does not apply. It is illegal contraband, a hazardous substance, and you can be thrown in jail - yes jail - for trying to sell it without spending $100 to test that one single item. Can you really look me in the eye and tell me you ‘don’t have a good solution’ to that. Well, I do. Grow up. That’s my solution. Grow up and realize that lead in paint from cheap chinese factories does not make every single product designed for children under the age of 12 years for the last fifty plus years illegal and dangerous. Do you realize that the fines and criminal penalties are greater for selling that children’s tee shirt at your garage sale than it was to possess or sell booze during prohibition? Good god - have you lost your mind? No boy scout patches, no books at libraries, nothing - because it might contain… lead! Doesn’t matter if it is made of things that don’t contain lead - no amount of common sense is good enough for the hysteria of this law. This law is ruining small toy manufacturers and retailers as we speak, people who have risked their financial livelihood to provide exactly the kind of safe alternatives to mass produced lead-based crap that mattel and other HUGE crappy toy companies foisted on the American public all in the name of profit. But this law will put those caring and responsible small manufacturers and retailers out of business. Overnight. It already is, because they are all selling their inventory at fire sale prices today. They don’t have to luxury of waiting it out to see what happens. On feb. 10th hundreds of inspectors will go out the door looking for people to, essentially, throw in jail. You have no good solution? The solution, dear lady, is to think a little past the slogan of ‘protecting children’ and see that this law puts them at greater risk than any law in the past fifty years - because it will thin the market down to those companies and those retailers who have their profits much more at heart than the welfare of our children. The solution is to examine your hysteria. Or perhaps we should all be tested for disease when we leave our houses in the morning for work - after all - its all in the name of safety, right? This law is a national embarrassment and it is so bad that those in charge will rather let thousands upon thousands of small businesses go to ruin…happening NOW…than to take responsibility for just how irresponsible this law is, and how is was passed in haste as a ‘win’ all in the name of ‘protecting children’.
I work at a Thrift Store and see all the people who depend on us to cloth their children. With the economy like it is this law would really put some of these people in a pinch when it comes to clothing their children. I would be one of the first to agree that we want our children to be safe but believe there is a limit to government interference. The biggest percent of childrens clothes that we sell are almost like new. So what would we do with them if we could not sell them, haul them to the dump and contaminate the ground and whatever else.
As a consumer I know that at the bottom line it my responsibility to judge if a product is worth the risk of buying. The only time I could consider myself exempt from that is if the product is grossly misrepresented to me. In the case or resale shops, thrift stores, and the like I know that the shop keepers can’t completely vouch for the products (they are use and no one knows exactly how) and so I know I must do my homework (checking recalls, etc.) before buying. If something looks fishy to me I don’t buy. I think it’s that simple. And it makes me very upset to think that my ability to bargain shop (and provide more for my child for less) could come to a quick end over a law such as this. They sell kits for home testing if I’m really that concerned.
You believe it is reasonable to hold a store owner liable for a $100,000 fine and imprisonment (both punishments developed with multi-million dollar corporations in mind) for the lead limit in non-recalled items that they may unknowingly sell.
I think you put way to much responsibility on the thrift owner. I’m a resale store owner. I’m a mom. I make decisions based on what I know as a consumer. Good lord, retailers are just people, we are not born with heat seeking lead sensors.
No,it is not reasonable at all. In fact many states who already have stricter lead laws in place thought it was unreasonable too, adding in their laws the simple statement that “retailers who unknowingly sell products that exceed the new limits are not liable”.
Now that statement is reasonable. Manufacturers should not make products with lead in them, but we can not just wave a magic wand and make it all disappear.
I guess you’ll be tossing all your non-tested kids items in the garbage on Feb. 10th since you feel so strongly, then again on August 09, and again on Aug 2010. Then you will know nothing in your home exceeds 100 ppm total lead and everyone will be saved! Ugh…
I’m very sad as I think this will push our country from a recession right over the hill into a depression. This is huge and so many people just dismiss it.
“I would certainly rely on a thrift store owner, who every day judges products and clothes as to their value and manufacture, to flag anything that might be suspicious.” I work for a resale company. How can you assume with our experience we can tell if a product has lead in it? “Oh yeah Jim, this one smells like lead.”
What about mom owned and locally owned businesses that are not resale!!! It seems resale may get a pardon but I see no talk of things outside of that. The number of small stores and online stores that sell handcrafted children’s products is large. Are we all out of business? Should I start selling hair bows for $200 a piece? This law is much too broad and I cannot imagine what it will do to our economy to put all those moms and local shop owners out of business. Pssst…meet me in the back alley for some baby blankets. Is that what it must come to? Wait, I forgot, this is America. I’ll just file for a bailout.
yep you are goofy. I think it is reasonable for people to take care of themselves and not rely on the government to form a commission to save humanity from itself.I am so very tired of peoples problems being brought into our government and i don’t mean problems pertaining to governing the country, but the petty discomforts of humanity being tossed around as if they are national security issues. we have important issues that our elected public officers should deal with. We have other important issues that you and I should deal with amongst ourselves. lines need to be drawn and all you “do good self righteous” types need a hobby the confines your idiosincracies to your own close circle of friends and family. Try to keep in mind “natural selection” yes it is cruel but it is necessary or our world may become over crowded over polluted and we may find our natural resources depleted.
Your argument centers on retailers knowing their products and using good judgement. When you look at paint on a toy, do you see the lead? When you look at the t-shirt with a decal, do you see the phthalate? Of course not, nor does anyone else. So, while the CPSC has stated that re-sellers don’t have to test, they also said in the same letter that anyone who “distributes in commerce” a children’s product or toy containing lead or phthalates is committing a crime. Think of the implications. Selling at a garage sale, that is distributing into commerce, a t-shirt containing phthalates in the decal is now a crime, after February 10, 2009, punishable by a $100,000 fine per item sold!
The simple correction to this issue is:
regardless wherever a item that violates the new standard is found, it is the manufactures responsibility.
So, if a toy with lead paint is found in Salvation Army or Target, the fine goes back to the manufacturer. They are the first line of defense in the testing process. They should do their job & be held accountable.
Was Mattel ever fined for the 2 million lead tainted toys last year???