CPSIA, big government at its finest

This blog will be divided into several parts, feel free to scroll past one part and just read another.

Part the First, In which you may all shake my hand and call me a prophet (ess).

Let your memory wander back with me if you will to this time last year when we were all jumping at lead paint warnings that were coming out every few days it seemed. I thought I remembered forecasting gloom and doom and so I looked back through my archives and yes, it seems that although the scriptures do not mention any specific gift of "believing just enough of the conspiracy theories to be able to call Big Brother's next move", I do in fact, have it.
I call your attention to exhibit A, my blog post from Sept. 17, 2007, entitled most appropriately, Will the government please hold my hand? One short excerpt,

"HOWEVER (you knew that was coming, didn’t you?), if I read or hear one more thing about “the government” letting this happen, or “the government” allowing these toys to be sold, or “the government” taking steps to make sure it doesn’t happen again... I will scream.I don’t want “the government” to decide what toys I can buy and my children can play with. Someone else already gets to decide who and how and when my children get vaccinated, how I can deliver my babies, how I can educate them, and we are on a slippery slope regarding how I can discipline them."

Well, folks it has happened and with the government's usual bumbling inefficiency, it is has produced legislation that is a veritable quagmire of dead-ends and loopholes.

Part the Second, in which I give a brief explanation of why you should care.

Ok, no one wants their kids getting brain damage from chewing on lead painted toys, no one wants their kid ending up in the hospital from ingesting water droplets that came into contact with toys that were in some inexplicable way made from the same stuff we call the "date rape drug". However, in the attempt to keep us safe, the Gov't has drastically overstepped what is needed and produced a piece of legislation that will effectively close down thousand and thousands of small and micro producers. All toys. All infant and child wear. Anything that may be considered a durable article. These are all policed by the new set of rules.

All final distributors are responsible to acquire third party testing on all items or lots of item, no matter what materials they are made from. It doesn't matter if the items are made from materials already deemed safe.
A woodworker using untreated hardwoods and food-grade beeswax as a finish, can continue making cutting boards and kitchen ware, but can no longer produce handmade wooden toys from the same materials. The toys are now deemed hazardous unless each toy, or lot of identical toys undergoes approved safety testing by a third party lab. By lot of identical toys, it means the identical SKU. A carved car and a carved truck made from the same piece of wood are not identical, they must both be tested. A seamstress making a size small shirt and a size medium shirt from the same bolt of (previously tested) cloth, and fastening them with the same (previously tested) snaps, must pay to have both items tested because they are not identical.

This does not just effect micro-producers such as myself. There are many small producers who do produce by the batch, but in small enough batches that it is not economically feasible to test them, who will also be put out of business.

This dragnet is so widespread that many, many small businesses, many home side-businesses are going to either have to close or become illegal. You know the nice lady who knits dolls for the church bazaar? out of business. you know the guy who does woodworking on the side and sells those cool pull-toys at the fall festival? he's a felon, baby.

Please look at this article. It is not long and will explain it in greater detail.

This article is also a very good read, clear and concise. 'Cause, to be honest, no one has ever called me concise.

Part the Third, in which I make a small political point.

Ok, one of the many things that absolutely MADDENED me over this past election season is the use of "voting records" to prove that this candidate was a saint, or that one, a nazi-antichrist-sinner. Yes, of course we can garner some information from a politician's voting record, but that is not the whole story. As I repeatedly attempted to bring up, we also need to know WHY a person may have voted "no" on a particular piece of legislature. For instance... in the future we would all be appalled at a politician who voted against this safety legislation! What kind of monster doesn't want to keep poison off of our children's toys? Well.... gentle reader, the kind who reads the bill carefully and realizes that while the intent is good, the practice will bring about what is being called "National Bankruptcy Day!" The proposed legislation as it now stands is AWFUL. It needs to be clarified. Small makers need to be given a way to comply AND stay in business. Toy makers who have traditionally been the safest of all (that would be small producers in the USA and "boutique" producers from Europe) really don't need to be policed at all. The customer base for these types of producers do enough policing on their own.
I don't want my representatives voting for this! Not because I want dangerous toys, but because the bill as it stands is flawed and incomplete and ironically enough, the only ones who will be able to afford to comply are the HUGE producers whose cheap quality and cheap labor will allow them to foot yet another bill and pay for this testing. so... the result of the "save us from lead paint and melamine made in China" is going to be that the only legal toys left will be mass produced ...in China.

Part the Fourth, In which I give a call to action.
In conclusion, I do, in all seriousness, ask that you take the few extra minutes to read the links I gave. I'm sure that this does in some way effect you. Either you are a child or have a child, or know someone who makes products for children ( hey, you know me, right?), even as a hobby or for occasional sale. Maybe you've come to appreciate the great quality of some of the "higher end" boutique toys that are made in places like Germany. Or, maybe, you think that while we do have a responsibility to protect children, passing huge, poorly written legislation such as this is just bad for the USA as a whole.

This blog has a superb little write-up on the best way to approach your representative about this issue. Here is the official government page showing the subcommittee responsible ( you can see if your state or district is on there, even if they aren't PLEASE contact your own representative AND the chairman listed on that site. This page will let you enter your home address and show exactly who you should contact.

In conclusion, please help save small business, help support artisans, and tell big gov't, "thanks, but no thanks." It really shouldn't take more than a few minutes. This issue is time-critical right now, it's set to go February of 2009.