Will the CPSIA Affect Your Business? Then Do Something About It!

The agency has issued a clarification which may allay some of your fears:

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Pressure should be put on Waxman from other Senators and Reps. They have more pull with each other than we do. And this does affect the work that Kerry’s trying to do with small business so he should know about it. There is nothing wrong with getting the word out to as many people as possible otherwise Waxman can just dismiss us. Contact everyone! Congressman, Senators, Representives, The White House, your state’s Attorney General & The Media. Don’t limit yourself to just one source! Be heard everywhere!

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Hi Heather,
Thanks for posting information on the CPSIA. I have contacted the Senate Minority (Republicans) Commerce Committee Office and was told that we need to put pressure on the Senate Majority (Democrats) on the Commerce Committee, because they are the ones in charge to bring it up in a committee meeting. I have posted a blog (http://zipngoblanket.blogspot.com/2009/01/cpsia-and-you-shall-know-their-names.html) with all the Senate members both Democrats and Republicans that are on the Commerce, Science & Transportation Committee with a link to their website and their phone number. I will later post another blog with all the House Representatives both Majority and Minority on the House Commerce Committee with their website and phone number. Please call on Monday and have everyone else you know call. From what I am hearing from the people I have talked to in DC, is the Majority (Democrats) in the House and Senate Commerce Committee are not interested in bringing this up in the Committee. We need to make them interested!

In Liberty,
Jennifer Locke
Owner l Zip-n-go Blanket Product of Alpha Omega Goods, Inc.
Zip-n-go Blanket- “The Weatherproof Blanket That Zips-n-goes… ANYWHERE!”

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I don’t think you are reading it very closely. What you linked to only deals with thrift and other resale shops, not manufacturers or retailers. There are huge problems to deal with.

Please tell me you aren’t commenting just to get people to click over to your business.

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Thank you Heather for commenting on this. We have begun this week finding out from our vendors which have their GCC’s, which do not but plan to and those that do not and will not by Feb 10. We have approximately 400 vendors. So far I have deactivated from our line about 10 product lines (about 2.5%) after communicating with the vendors and deciding that they are not going to continue business due to this law. I feel it is still early to tell how many overall it will be as many vendors are currently looking into the price of XRF testing and trying to figure out if they are affected by this law after which they will decide if they can afford to proceed with testing if they are in fact in need of it. In another week I hope to have a much more accurate understanding of just how many products we will have to cease carrying and by Feb 10 the goal is for Mom 4 Life to be 100% compliant. In the meantime I, like you, am working to get the word out. I don’t want business owners to be caught unaware or uninformed. I have sent out a few letters in the past but did so again today to Kerry as you suggested and my Idaho congressman. Below is a copy of what I wrote (with the help of a vendor that I work with who also happens to be a lawyer). Please feel free to use parts of it for your own letters if you so desire.

Dear Congressman Kerry:

I am the owner of a small internet business in Athol, Idaho and am writing to express my deep concerns regarding the recent Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (“CPSIA”), as well as to voice my strong objections to the Advisory Opinion of the Office of the General Counsel of the CPSC dated September 12, 2008 (the “Falvey Opinion”), in which it was held that the new safety standards of the CPSIA apply retroactively to existing inventory. If an immediate stay of enforcement of the CPSIA is not obtained, my company, and innumerable other American businesses, will be immediately forced into bankruptcy as of February 10th
- the date we are to be in compliance with the new regulations or face massive monetary penalties and/or imprisonment. Indeed, as you may already know, this date has been dubbed “National Bankruptcy Day” by members of the child products industry. I implore you to expeditiously take whatever action possible to see that enforcement of the CPSIA is immediately stayed, and that the law is subsequently amended, in order to prevent the disastrous consequences that are rapidly approaching.

Our small, family-owned company sells mom invented products online. I employee four mothers who at the current time are dependant on this income to support their family. The moms who are behind the products offered on Mom 4 Life are ambitious, hardworking, driven and creative. They have invented or crafted quality products that solve real needs. Unfortunately, the more creative the product is, the less likely that we will be able to continue selling it as the customized items, as so far as we can tell, simply cannot be tested to the degree that the law currently requires. The real need here is for a change in the way the law is written and applied. Protecting our children and supporting our mom inventors should not be an oxymoron. Unfortunately these days, we, like most manufacturers and retailers, not only have to endure the uncertainty of declining profits from a weakening economy but now, in light of the recent CPSIA legislation, certain bankruptcy as of February 10th if the law remains as it stands. In our case, the cost of testing each skew of our product would itself deplete our entire company account in one fell swoop.

We are currently working hard to ensure that our existing inventory is safe and appropriate to sell, and was manufactured in full compliance with the law. However, the retroactive effect of the CPSIA was never debated publicly nor disclosed to the nation’s business community for debate. In this regard, the injustice of the Falvey Opinion raises significant issues of due process and the true intent of the CPSIA.

The CPSIA presents very troubling issues for all businesses in our industry.
While well intentioned, the CPSIA goes too far in seeking to correct gaps in safety. In enacting the CPSIA, Congress has gone far beyond addressing reasonable concerns over safety procedures: it has created sweeping legislation covering perceived dangers where none exist and for which there is no history or evidence of safety issues. In this regard, the vast sums we and other companies would have to spend to test for total lead and phthalates would wipe out our profit and capital base yet will produce no appreciable safety gain. Moreover, the indiscriminate requirement to provide lot traceability on all children’s products is an unjustifiable waste of our nation’s limited supply of business capital. How does destroying our company financially make any child safer?

We are in favor of better safety standards but do not feel they should be designed to threaten the viability of our business. The terrible burdens of the CPSIA must relaxed to make it possible to conduct our business profitably while supplying safe children’s products. Most urgently, there needs to be an immediate stay of enforcement of this legislation until the President, Congress, and the business community can sift through the excruciatingly complex provisions of this law and find a way to improve child safety without destroying countless American companies. One of the most bitter ironies of this legislation is that it was purportedly enacted in response to problems of lead content in toys imported from China – but the practical effect of the CPSIA will be to ruin thousands of American businesses, like mine, that were established to avoid the dangers of overseas manufacturing and also to keep business here in the U.S.A.
Consequently, consumers who seek to purchase safe, American-made products for their children will essentially be left only with items imported from China, and thousands of business will fail overnight, creating more unemployment and more home foreclosures! I beg you to consider the devastating effects the CPSIA will have on our children and on our already failing economy.

It could not have been Congress’ intent to destroy all American businesses associated with children’s products. In an already struggling economy, none of us can bear the cost and consequences of the forced sale or write-off of existing inventory, nor can we afford more bankruptcies. Businesses need time to adjust to new standards and cannot absorb a blow to their balance sheets resulting from a sudden loss of inventory.

I implore you to support an immediate stay of enforcement of the CPSIA in order that the President, Congress, and members of the child products industry may come together to find a viable solution – one that will keep our children safe without causing the ruination of countless American companies that strive to produce quality products and to comply with the law in every respect.

Thank you for considering my views on this urgent matter.

Sincerely,

Heather Ledeboer
owner and mom
http://www.mom4life.com

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I am a small mom-based business in Canada, and I sell to about 50 stores in the US. This is affecting ALL of us and I encoourage all Canadaians to contact their local MLA or MP to start the Canadian government also putting the pressure on the US. I would love to grow my business and continue to sell to my loyal US customers, however, I cannot afford to test my 200+ sku’s. I have promised ALL of my retialers that I will be obtaining certification from each of MY suppliers which guarentee that each of the components I use are non-toxic and lead-free. MOST retailers have agreed that this would be enough for them.

Also, if people can no longer sell in the US, I can see them turning to other markets (i.e. Canada) to seel their wares, thus flooding our tiny market and putting even more pressure on small businesses here. Either way, this law have been not been well thought out and it is in the process of turning a LARGE business sector on it’s head. I agree that things should be safe for our children, it’s about time, but why is it MY responsiblities to have everything tested if I’m doing nothing to alter the products I use, I just put them altogether. Should this not be the responsibility of our suppliers? So the same components are not being tested 100 if not 1000′s of times over? If I know my snap is safe and you are using the same snap, why should you have to test it too???

I think I need to take out share in 3rd party testing companies if this does go through!! They’ll be the only ones left with money in our countires (oh, and the attornies!)

EVERYONE needs to speak up, even if you are just a consumer, not a buiness owner, THIS WILL AFFECT YOU!!

Fingers crossed!!

Sundi

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The snopes link needs somebody to debunk it- it’s false. How about this, somebody did:
http://www.1000markets.com/blog_posts/2494

Resales are not really in the clear, either. They don’t have to test. But if they accidentally sell something that was legal safe on Feb 9, but is above the lead limits on the 10th, they are still liable.

And it’s not up to the Commission alone. Any State’s Attorney General can pursue charges.

These are just a few tiny things wrong with this massive mess of a bill.

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