Are you making children's quilts or toys or garments to sell or donate?
01-06-2009, 05:52 AM
#11
Banned
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Wichita KS
Posts: 752
so does this mean we can no longer make baby quilts for our own families as gifts? I cannot believe these lawmakers are thinking of putting everything not tested into landfills. Maybe the companies that manufacture the supplies needed such as fabric, battings, threads and such will label their products as "tested" but that means fabrics will now be $30 to $50 per yard, a spool of thread will be $20, and batting will be $150 per package.
01-06-2009, 07:00 AM
#12
Super Member
Join Date: May 2008
Location: IN
Posts: 1,807
babeegirl, Glad i have a stockpile of fabrics in my stash, arent' you?
I think when government jumps in to solve any problem there are always "unforseen" problems that occur. I imagine it will be amended as a good portion of our laws are but it really irks me that a little more time isn't spent considering potential problems with the verbage in the first place.
With all the recalls this past year, I kept asking my DH why in the world they didn't BAN Chinese toys until the problems were fixed. So many companies are outsourcing to the cheapest supplier and our children pay the price. Why wouldnt' they?? Simple...money and relationships became more important than our citizens in the past administration(s).
Cathe, thanks so much for bringing this topic to the board.
I think when government jumps in to solve any problem there are always "unforseen" problems that occur. I imagine it will be amended as a good portion of our laws are but it really irks me that a little more time isn't spent considering potential problems with the verbage in the first place.
With all the recalls this past year, I kept asking my DH why in the world they didn't BAN Chinese toys until the problems were fixed. So many companies are outsourcing to the cheapest supplier and our children pay the price. Why wouldnt' they?? Simple...money and relationships became more important than our citizens in the past administration(s).
Cathe, thanks so much for bringing this topic to the board.
01-06-2009, 08:04 AM
#14
Senior Member
Join Date: May 2008
Location: Columbus, Ohio
Posts: 521
I have e-mailed both senators from Ohio with this question/statement(bad as it may be!):
I am trying to get clarification on the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act. Many of my quilting friends have many concerns about what this means for us. Will they still be able to make quilts and donate them to various charity groups? Many of them make crib quilts and children 's quilts to give. Can we sell quilts at craft shows? Or fear is that we will be required to have all kinds of extremely expensive testing done on one of a kind items. Our small cottage type industries will have to shut down.
Another concern involved the second hand stores, like Once Upon a Child here in Columbus. Will we still be able to consign our kids clothes there and buy the affordable used clothing they currently sell? People are afraid this will force these shops to close up.
All I can say is what a waste of resources and money. Simply because the Chinese don't care if they follow our standards. We are forced to bare the economic burden of their carelessness. How about we do something about the junk money hungry manufacturers import to save a buck and bring some production back into the US. Leave the small business people here alone. The women I communicate with don't have 3 out of a million items to send for testing like Mattel or other huge companies do.
Please, tell me I have misinterpreted the legal mumbo-jumbo of this Act! It seems way too broad and a little like Big Brother.
Thanks for your time and clarification.
I urge all of you to send your own letters to your congressmen, I read somewhere that's the best way to get their attention electronically, better than petitions. Let's make them work for their pay like we do!! I'll let you know if I ever hear anything back!
Mary
I am trying to get clarification on the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act. Many of my quilting friends have many concerns about what this means for us. Will they still be able to make quilts and donate them to various charity groups? Many of them make crib quilts and children 's quilts to give. Can we sell quilts at craft shows? Or fear is that we will be required to have all kinds of extremely expensive testing done on one of a kind items. Our small cottage type industries will have to shut down.
Another concern involved the second hand stores, like Once Upon a Child here in Columbus. Will we still be able to consign our kids clothes there and buy the affordable used clothing they currently sell? People are afraid this will force these shops to close up.
All I can say is what a waste of resources and money. Simply because the Chinese don't care if they follow our standards. We are forced to bare the economic burden of their carelessness. How about we do something about the junk money hungry manufacturers import to save a buck and bring some production back into the US. Leave the small business people here alone. The women I communicate with don't have 3 out of a million items to send for testing like Mattel or other huge companies do.
Please, tell me I have misinterpreted the legal mumbo-jumbo of this Act! It seems way too broad and a little like Big Brother.
Thanks for your time and clarification.
I urge all of you to send your own letters to your congressmen, I read somewhere that's the best way to get their attention electronically, better than petitions. Let's make them work for their pay like we do!! I'll let you know if I ever hear anything back!
Mary
01-06-2009, 08:08 AM
#15
Senior Member
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: Montana
Posts: 683
THIS IS ABSOLUTELY NUTS! How in the world are families who are on a tight budget supposed to clothe their children? We grew up on hand me downs and never thought a thing about it. Sometimes I honestly think the legislators smoke crack before passing these laws. They need to go after the problem makers and leave the rest of us alone. We are soooooo weak kneed and scared of 'making a fuss' with other countries. Screw them. Either they make products that meet our standards or the stuff doesn't enter our country. Okay, I'm now getting off Terri's soapbox :) :) :)
01-06-2009, 08:40 AM
#16
Senior Member
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: Raleigh, NC
Posts: 700
This is an AP article from December 24th. Looks like the commission is looking into what exemptions to allow.
Toy companies cheer proposed lead rule changes
By MARCUS WOHLSEN
Associated Press Writer
Posted: Dec. 24, 2008
SAN FRANCISCO — The makers of handcrafted toys received some holiday hope Wednesday with support from a federal agency for proposed exemptions from strict lead-testing regulations they feared could put them out of business.
Last year's discovery of lead paint in mass-market toys prompted the government to pass new safety rules requiring testing and labeling that mom-and-pop workshops and retailers said they could not afford.
As a February deadline for complying with the law loomed, toy makers who use benign materials such as unfinished wood, organic cotton and beeswax sought exemptions from the rules they said could apply to them.
In a memo released Wednesday, Consumer Product Safety Commission staffers recommended that the agency exempt some natural materials from the lead testing requirements.
"I think this is definitely a step in the right direction and would provide substantial and enormous relief to our manufacturers," said Dan Marshall, co-owner of Peapods Natural Toys and Baby Care in St. Paul, Minn.
Marshall and nearly 100 other toy stores and makers formed the Handmade Toy Alliance to ask lawmakers to exempt small toy companies from testing and labeling rules.
Staff toxicologists at the product safety commission told agency commissioners in the memo that some unfinished natural materials should be considered lead free. The materials include wood and fibers such as cotton, silk, wool, hemp, flax and linen.
The safety commission still must vote on the recommendations.
"The agency is diligently working on providing rules that would define some exclusions and some exemptions," said Julie Vallese, a spokeswoman for the product safety commission.
Lead paint prompted recall of 45 million toys last year, mostly made in China. Parents flocked to small specialty toy stores in the aftermath searching for safer alternatives.
In August, President Bush imposed the world's strictest lead ban in products for children 12 or younger by signing the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act.
Small toy makers strongly back the restrictions in the bill, which they say reflect voluntary standards they have long observed to keep harmful substances out of toys. But they never thought their products would also be considered a threat.
Under the law, all children's products must be tested for lead and other harmful substances. Toy makers are required to pay a third-party lab for the testing and to put tracking labels on all toys to show when and where they were made.
Those requirements make sense for a multinational toy manufacturer churning out thousands of plastic toys on an overseas assembly line, said Marshall
But a business that makes, for example, a few hundred handcrafted wooden baby rattles each year cannot afford to pay up to $4,000 per product for testing, a price some toy makers have been quoted, he said.
Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill., lead sponsor of the legislation, says toy makers should not worry. Rush points out that the law already exempts products and materials that do not threaten public safety or health.
"This exemption should be sufficient to affect most companies," Rush said in an e-mail to The Associated Press.
But without specific guidelines from the safety commission and a Feb. 10 deadline approaching, small toy makers felt they had no choice but to follow the law or risk facing fines of $100,000 per violation.
The product safety commission has until Jan. 5 to decide on the recommended exemptions.
Not everyone is satisfied that the proposal goes far enough to alleviate the burden on small toy makers.
Because the exemptions only apply to unfinished materials, very few toy makers will have products that are entirely spared from testing, said Julia Chen, owner of The Playstore in Palo Alto, which specializes in wooden and organic playthings.
"Let's be real and focus on these mass produced, manmade-material toys, because those are the ones that caused the problems we know about," she said.
By MARCUS WOHLSEN
Associated Press Writer
Posted: Dec. 24, 2008
SAN FRANCISCO — The makers of handcrafted toys received some holiday hope Wednesday with support from a federal agency for proposed exemptions from strict lead-testing regulations they feared could put them out of business.
Last year's discovery of lead paint in mass-market toys prompted the government to pass new safety rules requiring testing and labeling that mom-and-pop workshops and retailers said they could not afford.
As a February deadline for complying with the law loomed, toy makers who use benign materials such as unfinished wood, organic cotton and beeswax sought exemptions from the rules they said could apply to them.
In a memo released Wednesday, Consumer Product Safety Commission staffers recommended that the agency exempt some natural materials from the lead testing requirements.
"I think this is definitely a step in the right direction and would provide substantial and enormous relief to our manufacturers," said Dan Marshall, co-owner of Peapods Natural Toys and Baby Care in St. Paul, Minn.
Marshall and nearly 100 other toy stores and makers formed the Handmade Toy Alliance to ask lawmakers to exempt small toy companies from testing and labeling rules.
Staff toxicologists at the product safety commission told agency commissioners in the memo that some unfinished natural materials should be considered lead free. The materials include wood and fibers such as cotton, silk, wool, hemp, flax and linen.
The safety commission still must vote on the recommendations.
"The agency is diligently working on providing rules that would define some exclusions and some exemptions," said Julie Vallese, a spokeswoman for the product safety commission.
Lead paint prompted recall of 45 million toys last year, mostly made in China. Parents flocked to small specialty toy stores in the aftermath searching for safer alternatives.
In August, President Bush imposed the world's strictest lead ban in products for children 12 or younger by signing the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act.
Small toy makers strongly back the restrictions in the bill, which they say reflect voluntary standards they have long observed to keep harmful substances out of toys. But they never thought their products would also be considered a threat.
Under the law, all children's products must be tested for lead and other harmful substances. Toy makers are required to pay a third-party lab for the testing and to put tracking labels on all toys to show when and where they were made.
Those requirements make sense for a multinational toy manufacturer churning out thousands of plastic toys on an overseas assembly line, said Marshall
But a business that makes, for example, a few hundred handcrafted wooden baby rattles each year cannot afford to pay up to $4,000 per product for testing, a price some toy makers have been quoted, he said.
Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill., lead sponsor of the legislation, says toy makers should not worry. Rush points out that the law already exempts products and materials that do not threaten public safety or health.
"This exemption should be sufficient to affect most companies," Rush said in an e-mail to The Associated Press.
But without specific guidelines from the safety commission and a Feb. 10 deadline approaching, small toy makers felt they had no choice but to follow the law or risk facing fines of $100,000 per violation.
The product safety commission has until Jan. 5 to decide on the recommended exemptions.
Not everyone is satisfied that the proposal goes far enough to alleviate the burden on small toy makers.
Because the exemptions only apply to unfinished materials, very few toy makers will have products that are entirely spared from testing, said Julia Chen, owner of The Playstore in Palo Alto, which specializes in wooden and organic playthings.
"Let's be real and focus on these mass produced, manmade-material toys, because those are the ones that caused the problems we know about," she said.
01-06-2009, 09:06 AM
#19
Senior Member
Join Date: May 2008
Location: Columbus, Ohio
Posts: 521
Here's the quick response from Sherrod Brown (D-OH)
Thank you for sending me your comments. They have been recorded and will be reviewed by my staff. We endeavor to send everyone an individual response, but this is not possible in every case. If you have any immediate questions, please feel free to contact any of my offices via phone
Yeah, I'll never hear from him!!
Thank you for sending me your comments. They have been recorded and will be reviewed by my staff. We endeavor to send everyone an individual response, but this is not possible in every case. If you have any immediate questions, please feel free to contact any of my offices via phone
Yeah, I'll never hear from him!!
01-06-2009, 09:14 AM
#20
Super Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: Minnesota
Posts: 1,097
Staff toxicologists at the product safety commission told agency commissioners in the memo that some unfinished natural materials should be considered lead free. The materials include wood and fibers such as cotton, silk, wool, hemp, flax and linen.
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