Hello! I am happily participating in Handmade Toy Alliance's blog week. First of all, Hooray for HTA - which represents an alliance of toy stores, toy makers and children's product makers from across the country. This group has been working feverishly to preserve unique handmade and small batch toys, clothes, and all manner of children's goods in the USA from a set of regulations (CPSIA) intended for large manufacturers but have disastrous results for micro businesses.
In their words:
"In 2007, large toy manufacturers who outsource their production to China and other developing countries violated the public's trust. They were selling toys with dangerously high lead content, toys with unsafe small parts, toys with improperly secured and easily swallowed small magnets, and toys made from chemicals that made kids sick. Almost every problem toy in 2007 was made in China.
The US Congress rightly recognized that the Consumer Products Safety Commission (CPSC) lacked the authority and staffing to prevent dangerous toys from being imported. So, they passed CPSIA Act in 2008. Among other things, the CPSIA bans lead and phthalates in toys, mandates 3rd-party testing and certification for all toys and requires toy makers to permanently label each toy with a date and batch number. All of these changes will be fairly easy for large, multinational toy manufacturers to comply with. Large manufacturers who make thousands of units of each toy have very little incremental cost to pay for testing and updating their molds to include batch labels.
For small toy makers, 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 US face increased costs to comply with the CPSIA, even though US-made toys had nothing to do with the toy safety problems of 2007.
The authors of 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 and small batch children's products will no longer be legal in the US. Thriving small businesses are crucial to the financial health of our nation. Let's amend the CPSIA so that all businesses large and small are able to comply and survive!
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This week, HTA has invited the blogging community to bring a little more awareness of this issue by highlighting the work of one of it wonderful members.
Skipping Hippos is my pick today!
These ponchos are very loved articles in our home. They happen to be cozy like a blanket and very easy to put on and off! They also happen to make my girls look like little matrushka dolls! In addition to loving Skipping Hippos ponchos, I also happen to adore its designer and owner, Jolie Fay who has been passionately advocating on behalf of small businesses like me. She has been deeply involved in this fight because she cares very much about the moms, dads, grandmas, sisters, friends,etc, who like her, are passionately pursuing their handmade dreams and livelihood.
Thank you Jolie! Thank you Handmade Toy Alliance.
