Okay...this stinks.
http://blog.craftzine.com/archive/2008/12/consumer_safety_rules_could_dr.html
"Crafters are up in arms over a seemingly disastrous unintended consequence of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA), which will require lab certification that lead and phthalates are not present in toys or clothes -- sounds good, but crafters warn that this means that "a toymaker... who makes wooden cars in his garage in Maine to supplement his income cannot afford the $4,000 fee per toy that testing labs are charging to assure compliance with the CPSIA." The law takes effect on February 10th and the toymakers and small clothing designers are getting very worried indeed."
"For small American, Canadian, and European toymakers, however, the costs of mandatory testing, to the tune of up to $4,000 per toy, will likely drive them out of business. And the handful of larger toy makers who still employ workers in the United States face increased costs to comply with the CPSIA, even though American-made toys had nothing to do with the toy safety problems of 2007.The CPSIA simply forgot to exclude the class of toys that have earned and kept the public's trust. The result, unless the law is modified, is that handmade toys will no longer be legal in the US."
Not sure what this could mean for me and my fledgling business making plush toys. I hope SOMEONE realizes how much this new Act SUCKS for independant crafters and makes some sort of amendment or clause or whatever before it goes into effect.
I just joined the Handmade Toy Alliance on Facebook and signed the petition. If you care about independant crafters and toymakers (like me!) you can go sign it too! http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/handmadetoys
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