Good news.
I may be the only craft blogger who hasn't posted about the proposed CPSIA rule that would enforce lead testing on all products for kids under 12 (effectively putting out of business many small, domestic producers of children's items). BUT I did write to my elected representatives and was gratified that Congressman Lungren's office sent me a personal email and I actually talked on the phone (!) to someone from his office about how this legislation would affect my family income (um, not really at all, fortunately for me). I didn't even vote for Mr. Lungren but was pleased by the response. I also got a semi-personal email from Senator Feinstein's office that was at least relevant to the topic. All in all, I was rather impressed at the responsiveness.
ANYWAY, just saw this post on Craftsanity. Hope it's accurate, I haven't verified but she's a reporter so I'm counting on her to have done so.
From Craftsanity:
...
"The Consumer Product Safety Commission voted unanimously to issue one year stay of enforcement that will postpone the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act crackdown.
Whoo-hoo! I think this means we can legally buy and sell sock monkeys after Feb. 10.
I’m
gearing up to get my little darlings ready for bed, so I can’t blog
in-depth about this right now. So here’s the scoop straight from the
commission:
“Significant to makers of children’s products, the vote by the
Commission provides limited relief from the testing and certification
requirements which go into effect on February 10, 2009 for new total
lead content limits (600 ppm), phthalates limits for certain products
(1000 ppm), and mandatory toy standards, among other things.
Manufacturers and importers large and small of children’s products
will not need to test or certify to these new requirements, but will
need to meet the lead and phthalates limits, mandatory toy standards
and other requirements.
The decision by the Commission gives the staff more time to finalize four proposed rules which could relieve certain materials and products from lead testing and to issue more guidance on when testing is required and how it is to be conducted.
The stay will remain in effect until February 10, 2010, at which time a Commission vote will be taken to terminate the stay.”
The stay is great news, but there’s still plenty of work to be done to revise this law to ensure all makers of safe goods for children can afford to stay in business.
While this issue is far from settled, today’s announcement is a promising step in the right direction."
...
I was actually pretty confident this would work out (based on no evidence whatsover) and I'm glad to see that, for now at least, it has. Happy weekend, everyone
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