I haven’t written in the last week because I have sick little ones.  There is something going on right now, though, that I wanted to make my readers aware of.

Last year, Congress quietly passed a law, HR 4040, dubbed the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA), with the intent of fixing the “toxic toy” problem.  In theory, this is great.  Unfortunately, the wording is so broad (and retroactive) that the negative ramifications are far-reaching.  The act requires expensive testing of every component of every item that is designed for, or may reasonably be anticipated to be used by, children under 12, and of every batch of the resulting products.  The regulations go into effect on February 10th, and most people don’t even know about them!  If nothing is changed, the following things will happen:

• You will no longer be able to sell your children’s toys, books, and clothes at yard sales as they outgrow them, donate them to thrift stores, or put them on consignment.
• Most homeschool curriculum publishers will go out of business.
• Most thrift and consignment stores will go out of business.  Some may be able to continue operating without selling children’s products, but these are a big draw for thrift stores.
• Artists who handcraft toys will go out of businesses.
• WAHM’s who make cloth diapers will go out of business.
• Seamstresses, knitters, etc. who make children’s clothing or bedding will go out of business.
• Used bookstores will have to stop carrying children’s books.
• Ebay, and similar auction sites, will be greatly crippled.
• Out-of-print children’s books will no longer be available anywhere in the U.S.
• Small manufacturers and retailers who already have stock, and thrift stores, will have to dispose of tons of perfectly good product, overloading the landfills and just generally being wasteful (not to mention expensive).
• The big companies, like Mattel, who are notorious for providing tainted toys imported from China, will probably just pay fines for violations and go about business as usual.

All of this means that:

• Homeschooling materials will become almost non-existent.  We will have to use whatever we already have, or make our own.
• Our children will be able to wear only clothing that we already own, or that which is available at large retailers (most of which is not the modest, lovely stuff that many of us prefer for our families to wear).  Every bit of it will have to be purchased new, as yard sales and thrift stores will no longer have anything available for sale.
• We will no longer be able to purchase quality, handmade toys of natural materials, being left only with “corporate-giant” plastic “junk” options.  Many of these toys may still be unsafe, given the big companies’ abilities to pay fines and keep going.  Thus, we will no longer have safe options.

The good news is, the Consumer Product Safety Commission does, according to the law, have the authority to draft exemptions for certain products, categories, etc.  But they are demonstrating themselves to be a bit clueless.  Please take action on this!  If they exempt certain materials known to be generally safe (for instance, cotton), this will not only help protect the small companies, it may even encourage the larger ones to use higher-quality materials.

Other exemptions or adaptations would help small companies as well, such as being able to test a fabric, and then use it for the manufacture of ten different products, without having to test each one separately.  Talk to your Congressmen, talk to your local news, talk to the CPSC, talk to your friends.  But do something, because our entire economy and culture could be drastically different a month from now if we don’t do something.