Sunday, December 14, 2008

ummm.....should we freak out now? or not?

Don't know if anyone saw this yet , but I ran across it this morning...
"consumer safety rules could drive crafters out of business"
"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..."
Not sure what to think about this . A few years ago, I wouldn't have given it a second thought, but I have a store nowand it's full of my own little handmade stuffed animals. I can't tell if this is a real cause for concern or just freaking out for no reason. What do you think?

5 comments:

Kira said...

I'm not sure about "freaking out", but I think all of us plush makers should be at least a bit concerned and make efforts to make our voices heard and make sure that they amend this Act to exclude handmade toys.

Check out the Handmade Toy Alliance: http://www.handmadetoyalliance.org/

Sign the petition here: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/handmadetoys/

Anonymous said...

As mean as it seems, I can't help but giggle when this comes up, considering all the permutations of 'crafters for Democrats'. It's especially funny when you find out that the only people that voted against this were all Republicans, and that Obama didn't vote on it at all. The Nanny State...you asked for it, you got it.

Dollhead said...

Here is another bit of blog about it, from the the corporate toy world.
http://www.playthings.com/blog/390000439/post/1990037799.html?nid=3907
The act was clearly intended for mass-market toys, so hopefully they will amend the law before anything ridiculous happens.

Absolutely Small said...

I'm sure freaking out a little.

astulabee/nicole said...

honestly. total freak out.
sign those petitions! mass-market toys will be the only toys parents will be able to buy.
such a massive misfire.
this is bad!

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