Commission Clarifies CPSIA Rules for Resale Shops- Sort Of

previous post here

Official clarification here. Quote (emphasis added):

Under the new law, children’s products with more than 600 ppm total lead cannot lawfully be sold in the United States on or after February 10, 2009, even if they were manufactured before that date.

Keep in mind that, while they keep wording this as though the products actually do have lead in them, according to the law as written, the way the government 'proves' they have lead is by a negative- the product has no third party testing and certificate? It is automatically deemed to be a hazardous product containing lead and/or phthalates.

The total lead limit drops to 300 ppm on August 14, 2009.

The new law requires that domestic manufacturers and importers certify that children’s products made after February 10 meet all the new safety standards and the lead ban.

Domestic manufacturers- that includes home based businesses, cottage crafters, and the like, all those uniquely home-grown creative people at etsy- and, again, it's not a lead ban they have to meet, it's an expensive and onerous certification requirement, regardless of whether or not their product should be assumed to contain lead. Currently the only exceptions are for unbleached and undyed cotton, wool, silk, and pearls and gems. You an give your children pearls to play with, but not an Amish made wooden block cut from native hardwood and polished with natural beeswax (further down there's a very funny take on this).

Sellers of used [bold type in original document] children’s products, such as thrift stores and consignment stores, are not required to certify that those products meet the new lead limits, phthalates standard or new toy standards.

The new safety law does not require resellers to test children’s products in inventory for compliance with the lead limit before they are sold. However, resellers cannot sell children’s products that exceed the lead limit and therefore should avoid products that are likely to have lead content, unless they have testing or other information to indicate the products being sold have less than the new limit.

Thrift shops don't have test items, they just can't sell anything made before February 10th of this year, and in August they'll have to pull everything made between February and August. What is this 'other information' they might have indicating the products being sold have less lead than the new limit?

Those resellers that do sell products in violation of the new limits could face civil and/or criminal penalties.

We all know perfectly well that every organized charity shop, thrift store, and second hand store with access to a lawyer is going to be advised that the safest thing for them to do is pull all children's products made before February 10th, and then again in August.

The agency intends to focus its enforcement efforts on products of greatest risk and largest exposure.

There it is again, that covert wink and finger to the side of the nose hint that you can be a lawbreaker, 'we won't be coming after you.'

While CPSC expects every company to comply fully with the new laws resellers should pay special attention to certain product categories. Among these are recalled children’s products, particularly cribs and play yards; children’s products that may contain lead, such as children’s jewelry and painted wooden or metal toys; flimsily made toys that are easily breakable into small parts; toys that lack the required age warnings; and dolls and stuffed toys that have buttons, eyes, noses or other small parts that are not securely fastened and could present a choking hazard for young children.

The agency has underway a number of rulemaking proposals intended to provide guidance on the new lead limit requirements. Please visit the CPSC website at www.cpsc.gov for more information.

Children's products that have been recalled were already illegal to resell. Perhaps the thrift shops can label all second hand toys as 'collectibles, not intended for use by children 12 and under.'

Some parts of this bill are so funny you don't even need to make stuff up to mock it:

includes ALL products for those 12 and under, regardless of how they're used or what age they are for. So must test a children pacifier and microscope for a 6th grade sice lab to same standards. One manufacturer has already stated they're pulling out of microscope market because the testing assumes 12 year olds are eating the lightbulbs! If your 12 year old is eating lightbulbs out a of a microscope, you have more serious issues.



The only thing removed from testing thusfar is electronics, cotton, and gemstones. So it is totally okay for kids to have diamonds... but not bicycle helmets.





The second insane part of that it requires unit testing. This means you have to test the end products, not the components. For example, you are publishing textbooks. You publish a spelling book and a science book on the same day, on the same press, using all the same materials, and the same crew... you must test the science book and the spelling book separately for lead.

Yes, you read that right. The testing assumes that by rearranging the letters inside the books, you could spontaenously generate lead. Ditto for DVDs and CDs of educational software. Because this CD has a different arangement of ones and zeros on it, this one might be filled with lead!

The lightbulb in the microscope? That was due to a tiny dot of solder on the base of the lighbulb. The government mandates that we all use lightbulbs with mercury in them, but a tiny dot of soldering in a microscope lightbulb is hazardous waste. And it may well be that other factors played into that decision, or that the microscope manufacturer didn't look hard enough for a replacement. But it also may be that the dot of solder that broke the microscope manufacturer's back. They may have already been feeling the economic pinch, and decided the additional costs of certification and testing were just too burdensome to bear and their market wasn't going to absorb the costs any more than they were. I am not sure, but I think the dot of lead solder wasn't even outside the lightbulb- it was inside the glass.

This effects everybody, whether or not you sell handcrafted items, shop at thrift shops, or import toys. These safety measures have very little to do with making a product safer for the intended consumer. Regardless of whether the item has ever been known to contain lead, whether any lead it does contain is actually accessible to a child, it has to have the certificate showing over-all lead levels. And if every component in the product has already been certified lead-free, the final product must be tested as well, imposing a massive cost without a corresponding gain in safety.

Here's some information about how it affects telescope manufacturers:

The attached document is a quote we received to test ONE telescope product under the CPSIA. The cost of the testing is a mere $24,050 for this single item. The average annual sales of this item are approximately $32,000 over the past two years. Needless to say, we cannot afford to spend $24,050 to test this (or any) item. I presume that Congress intended this result and wants us to stop selling telescopes to keep everyone safe. I guess kids can see the planets by squinting from now on. Thanks, Congress!

This absurd result is increasingly common under the destructive and poorly-conceived CPSIA. It is not surprising to me that a law born out of anger and written in a spirit of retribution has created market chaos and many unintended consequences. In my prior correspondence, I have set out many dangerous and unacceptable effects that are wreaking havoc among law-abiding companies. Good corporate citizenship is no help when facing a law which markets itself as “pro-safety” but cripples companies with unbearable financial burdens and pointlessly complex compliance requirements that redirect safety investments into bureaucracy. The CPSIA is simply an invitation by the Federal Government for all children’s products companies to find something else to do.

Others on Etsy have said they believe this will hinder them growing their businesses, as bankers won't be willing to extend credit to them in such a hostile climate.

Here's the sort of head in the sand mentality from your average citizen that contributes to this sort of problem in the first place:

Are we sure that they aren't just talking about manufacturers? Well, something about this sounds fishy to me. Unless I hear it on TV's National and local news, I just can't believe it, nor will I stop crocheting for charities.

Books must be tested and certified:

If you self publish, ditto. It's still bad news for book lovers.

Article [fenris] wrote here Used items don't need to be burned, but if it is a NEW item still in the publisher's warehouse, it still needs to be destroyed. WTH.


The American Library Association has just woken up to this nightmare and is moving fast. Here's the info available so far on that. Obtained off the OldBookStore mailing list (for booksellers), which was a repost from a state librarians mailing list. was response a state librarian got from ALA:

"Following the query about the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act to this list Monday, ALA has been working to separate facts from fiction. So far it appears the law could apply to books, CD's, AV and such for kids under 12, but for anyone older it would not. Beyond that opinions vary as to what exactly it means for libraries and schools.

It is clear though this wasn't an intent of the law, but since books aren't regulated like toys and aren't named in the law no one paid attention to it. ALA is working on a press statement and request for Congressional contacts, plus comments to the rule setting committee. When those are sent out it would be important for anyone with strong feelings about the unintended consequences to send appropriate messages to identified people or agencies."

"Censorship is telling a man he can't have a steak just because a baby can't chew it."
-Mark Twain