| Author | Message | ||
     Ft_bstrd |
The new law, passed December 5th, is called the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act. What it is designed to do is to protect children (12 and under) from products containing lead and pthalates. Sounds reasonable, right? This regulation covers EVERY product (except medical equipment) to be marketed to and used by children 12 and under. Helmets ATV's Motorcycles Toys Clothing Furniture Toothbrushes Qtips Fingernail clippers Electronics Books CDs DVDs Batteries Etc. Each item must be independently tested. Each style must be independently tested. Each size must be independently tested. This means that if you produce an item in 10 different sizes in 4 different colors would have to pay for 40 tests. These tests cost anywhere from $100 to $3,000 and are conducted by only ONE certified firm. This act is RETROACTIVE. February 10th is the date that all products sold prior to February 10th to be certified lead and pthalate free. If not, these items can't be sold in the United State. What does this law mean for you? February 10th is expected to be "National Bankruptcy Day" for small companies who can not afford to comply with the law. This includes my wife's small children's clothing company. Many small companies will be detrimentally impacted by this law. Prices will increase for all consumer products. Costs of testing will drastically increse the costs of products to consumers. My wife's company, as the law is written, would have to pay $100,000 in testing. Their production costs for the 2009 Spring Collection was $89,000. This law has absorbed all of their potential profits. Companies who chose to comply with the law rather than to shutter their doors will be forced to find manufacturers who will operate even cheaper than China. The law itself places even greater pressure for corporations to offshore jobs in order to reduce costs. This is REALLY bad law. The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) is the ONLY source of certified testing and the issuance of compliance certification. As such, this single new understaffed agency has the ability to control a vast component of our economy. It's already passed and ratified. | ||
| Spiderman |
A government big enough to give you everything you want, is big enough to take away everything you have. -- Thomas Jefferson | ||
| Court |
It's high time that 12 year old stopped riding dangerous motorcycles . . .
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| Midknyte |
Helmets ATV's Motorcycles Toys Clothing Furniture ... Hey, ya left out pencils | ||
| Hexangler |
How about split shot for fishing lines??? | ||
| Miamiuly |
Pellets for pellet guns- guess kids will have to use BBs now. | ||
| Spectrum |
This was on one of the morning news programs this morning. Basically saying don't buy any toy made out of PVC. Remove any of these toys your child may already have. Bottom line is if your child eats these toys they could get dangerous toxins. If this was a major problem I think we would have already heard about it. Seems common sense and education would be more effective than government regulation. If your child is prone to eat his toys, be careful what toys you let him eat. Enough said. | ||
| Slowride |
FTB, WoW sorry to hear about that. I am reading between the lines here, but if I picked it up correctly; your wife will be closing the doors on Feb. 10th. I wish you the best of luck. I think you should start up a watchdog org and or lobby group. You have a nack for it, I think. | ||
| Dbird29 |
It's for the Children. Obviously nothing is too much to protect those that cannot protect themselves. | ||
| Etennuly |
I wonder if this regulation will be enacted on Chinese products BEFORE they enter the godamn country?!?? A-hole legislators just doubled the price of a lot of consumer products during a serious recession. That'll stimulate the economy(of one certified company)! I wonder if the testing will be done in Illinois?  You know.....where no 'back door' deals are done. | ||
| Ft_bstrd |
I am reading between the lines here, but if I picked it up correctly; your wife will be closing the doors on Feb. 10th. We hope not, but as it stands we can't afford to pay for the testing. In the letter of the law, we just recalculated the testing costs. It would Be $156,000 for testing. Manufacturing costs were only $89,000. We are hoping that someone, somewhere has come component of common sense and provides and exemption for children's clothing which are lead free by nature. The Spring line goes out in January. Potentially, the stores who bought the products could send them back for a refund after February 10th unless we pay the $156,000 for testing. | ||
| Rotzaruck |
A wonderful time to smash small business. If you messed up on the testing, the fines would get you for sure. Basically saying don't buy any toy made out of PVC It hasn't been that many years ago we were still finding lead pipe supplying drinking water. It's okay now though, a lot of it was replaced with PVC. I just don't know how we have survived so long before the government started taking such good care of us. | ||
| Benm2 |
Can't you just get the certs of the raw materials that you use? Unless you're adding something of your own manufacture, it would seem that the suppliers of thread, material, etc. would be in a much better position to comply. It seems insane that you're wife could use material from Jack's Cotton Mill and thread from the Shwingzoo Thread Company and have to provide independent testing of the end product. It would seem the onus should be on the manufacturer to provide the proof, and compliance by the assembler would be an (albeit timewasting) paper exercise. Laws CAN be silly, but that sort of oversight is just odd. | ||
| Midknyte |
Second-hand lead exposure studies in 3.. 2.. | ||
| Benm2 |
http://www.cpsc.gov/cpsia.pdf I BRIEFLY read section 102 on page 7, at the top. It seems that this applies SPECIFICALLY to imported products. Am I looking at that right? If so, and you're wife is making stuff herself, it seems she'd be fine? | ||
| Hexangler |
Ultimately, new children will be outlawed due to the inevitability of death. | ||
| Miamiuly |
 We've done a lot of damage to this country trying to protect the children, then it just turned to saving everyone (mostly from themselves.) | ||
| Strokizator |
In order to more easily intrude on (regulate) anything, the government first must manufacture a crisis. Then they can intervene under the pretense of saving the children, the environment, the spotted owl, the snail darter, etc. It all boils down to the wishes of those in power to have even more. | ||
| Trackdad |
Yea, well it started with OSHA! Gotta keep stupid people from hurting themselves along with companies that would do the same thing. Well nothing has changed since OSHA's inception in the 70's. No new laws just updates to the existing ones. Yes less people are hurt except maybe the inept ones that couldn't do the job anyway! Gov't protecting us from Us! Had a OSHA inspection at one of our facilities just recently. 7 citations later to the tune of $8,000.00 and we needed to write specific work procedures. Not that the procedures weren't there to begin with but "be more specific to the job." All this because one person wasn't happy! So now to answer the complaints 3 lawyers are involved, plus 2 safety engineers and a lot of time! Funny thing is the facility has had a clean accident record for the last five years, six on January 1. Well we figure the lawyers will rule everything if they could... still have to protect us from us....get out the plastic bubble here I come!! | ||
| Court |
That's not entirely accurate about OSHA. I am a licensed Safety Manger, CSP candidate and ASSE Professional. While OSHA does a lot of really stupid crap they do much less dangerous crap than many construction employers. I'll qualify that by adding that I am very fluent in 1926, less so in 1910 which may be where your violation was. For what it's worth also . . you CAN fight OSHA citations. I got one at Grasslands Substation in 2006. It was retribution in a union jurisdictional dispute. I got nailed with a citation. I hired a law firm, took a very active role in the defense and took the case to the OSHRC (there are two tribunals that hear OSHA cases) and won. I'm no fan of big government but I am also, being in one of the most dangerous areas (code 7538) of construction (Overhead Power Transmission lines) I'm aware of how poor a job employers used to do left to their own devices. | ||
| Trackdad |
Court, My point being that there are alot of stupid people who become stupid employers. It takes all types to rule this world, but I do believe in things going too far to protect the one individual who may do that one stupid thing. Self preservation I guess. We could have fought the citations but for 8 grand in fines it was easier to work out the details in house with the lawyers and the safety group. Do we spend the money to fight it or just modify the procedures and pay the fine... reduced negotiated fee of $6200.00. | ||
| Ft_bstrd |
As it stands, component testing is not allowed. Only final SKUs are able to be certified. Component testing would greatly lessen the costs. The penalty for non-compliance is up to 3 years in prison and $100,000 in fines. The regulation covers ALL manufacturing foreign and domestic. | ||
| Froggy |
Ft_bstrd, you mention nothing of adult clothing. I don't know the first thing about your wife’s work, but perhaps shift towards that? More I think about it, the less practical it sounds. | ||
| Benm2 |
I also imagine you're not the only one impacted. There may already be an injunction in the works, I'd hunt around for that. If their isn't one, gather up your competitors and have at it! A simple change allowing for constituents to be certified seems simple enough. | ||
| Reepicheep |
Sounds like your wife just went into the adult clothing line.... Sizes XS, XSS, XSSS, and XSSSS. Not approved for use by children. | ||
| Hootowl |
"Ultimately, new children will be outlawed due to the inevitability of death." If the "I know what's best for you" attitude of our government persists, it may just come to that. | ||
| Cityxslicker |
Everything I needed to learn, I knew without the government 'safety' programs Falls hurt, Stove tops get hot, Dont eat paint or paste, gun safety, drinking to excess makes you feel loopy, eating to excess makes you fat, riding too fast may cause accidents, on the road-livestock win, teeth are not permanent, bones break, noses are fragile, and anybody that says they are 'looking out for your best interest' usually ISNT. Another boondoggle brought to you by elected officials and a public that was not paying attention or was hoodwinked. | ||
| Ft_bstrd |
Dwarf clothing. I'll see if I can make that work.  | ||
| Spiderman |
Maybe you can skirt the laws by putting a tag or warning label on it by saying. "Not for use by children" | ||
| Gunut75 |
Did'nt the government pull OSHA funding around 3-4 years ago? I was working on the Great Lakes Naval Base at the time. This was big news to them. I believe (yes, I may be wrong) OSHA stands as an independent entity, no longer connected to the gov. If I'm right, then where do they get their enforcement power?  |
