Well, I have been devastatingly worried about potentially having to turn away those of you who like my kids jewelry and totes because of a new law that takes effect Feb. 10. Basically, in August President Bush signed into law H.R. 4040 (written VERY quickly by Congress) which is now called the Consumer Products Safety Improvement Act or CPSIA for short, which is intended to eliminate lead and phthalates from childrens products (awesome), BUT it is written so ridiculously that it will put the majority of boutiquers, thrift stores, consignment shops, small kids shops, etc. out of business because of the extremely strict testing requirements that are to be done on every unique item for those of us who make one-of-a-kind items, and per batch for larger manufacturures. I'm not talking about not being able to pass the tests with flying colors but about not being able to afford the rigourous testing which would cost me at least $300.00 to test each $10.00 bracelet (which would be dissolved in acid during the test). Now does that make any sense at all? The CPSC won't talk to us without treating us like we don't matter. They obviously don't know how big etsy.com has gotten!!! Moms don't like buying things from China anymore, but they're pushing handmade items out of the market so you will HAVE to buy from China. Seriously???!!! I thought there had to be more gray matter up there on Capitol Hill, but obviously I was wrong.
Here are some other articles that can describe this issue better than I can:
The gov't site where you can read the law:
http://www.cpsc.gov/ABOUT/Cpsia/cpsia.HTML
http://www.cafemom.com/journals/read.php?post_id=1320853http://nationalbankruptcyday.com/Glen Beck talking about how stupid this law is:
http://www.glennbeck.com/content/articles/article/196/19911/
