Important Letter for Small Business Owners

Dear Small Business Owner,

Most of you have probably heard of H.R. 4040 by now. This is the new Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act that was made law last August. For some reason, this law slipped in under the radar of everyone it will affect, but suddenly people everywhere are talking about it and there is a rushed attempt to try to clarify the meaning of the law, who it applies to, how companies are supposed to comply with the law, etc.

I believe that the sponsors of the original bill and the people who supported it did have good intentions. After all, we all want our children to be safe. The bill was hastily created, however, and there was not enough discussion about the implications of this new bill so now it threatens to bankrupt literally thousands of small businesses in the United States.

To quickly summarize the law, it basically requires testing on any and all materials or products that will come in contact with children. This includes toys, children’s furniture, clothing, audio materials, games, etc. The government has approved certain testing agencies and it will cost from $500 to $3000 to test EACH product. Let’s say you produce a children’s Bible and there is as boy version and a girl version with a different color cover on each. Because each of these items will have a different SKU, you will have to pay the fee to have EACH item tested! The same is true of hairbows, toys, shoes, everything that comes in contact with children age 12 and under.

If this sounds like a bad dream and something too sinister to be true, trust me, I thought it was at first as well. I heard about it last week and thought, surely someone has misunderstood something. After countless hours of research, however, I discovered that it IS true and this IS going to happen on February 10.

You can visit the CPSC website at http://www.cpsc.gov/about/cpsia/cpsia.html to read the law for yourself. There are also several memoranda on there that answer questions that have been raised. One of the main questions is whether or not retailers are allowed to sell inventory that was purchased before February 10, 2009 if it hasn’t been certified as safe. Unfortunately, the answer was not reassuring.

In regards to the sale of unsold inventory after February 10, 2009, the Consumer Safety Commission stated, “The Commission is aware of the potentially significant economic impact that the new Act could have on any remaining inventory next February. However, Congress stated that children’s products that did not meet the new lead limits would be treated as ‘a banned hazardous substance’ under the Federal Hazardous Substances Act as of February 10, 2009, and made it unlawful ‘to sell, offer for sale, manufacture for sale, distribute in commerce, or import into the United States’ any banned hazardous substance.”

In other words, they fully recognize that this is going to bankrupt thousands of businesses, but they have basically said that they do not care. It is not their place to worry about the impact of the laws they pass. While they are supposed to represent the people of the United States, they seem completely oblivious to the burden this will place on every business that caters to children as well as EVERY PARENT of children age 12 and under since parents will find it difficult to purchase used products after February 10 and they will be paying a much larger price for new products due to the testing requirements.

As a parent of five children, we rely largely on used products for our children. There was much discussion about whether or not the government actually expected this law to cover older products that are now being sold through thrift, second hand or consignment stores.

On January 8, 2009, there was a memorandum released to clarify the responsibility of thrift stores. The Consumer Product Safety Commission stated in the memorandum that, “Sellers of used children’s products, such as thrift stores and consignment stores, are not required to certify that those products meet the new lead limits, phthalates standard or new toy standards.”

That sounds great until you read the next paragraph, which states that, “The new safety law does not require resellers to test children’s products in inventory for compliance with the lead limit before they are sold. However, resellers cannot sell children’s products that exceed the lead limit and therefore should avoid products that are likely to have lead content, unless they have testing or other information to indicate the products being sold have less than the new limit.

Those resellers that do sell products in violation of the new limits could face civil and/or criminal penalties.”So in other words, they aren’t responsible for the testing, BUT if they sell a product that doesn’t comply, they could be fined.

Please contact your United States Senator or Representative TODAY and let him/her know that you strongly oppose this law and want it repealed immediately. While I recognize the fact that the sponsors of the original bill had good intentions, this is a horrible law and it needs to be stopped before it’s too late. Perhaps at a later date, our elected leaders can sponsor another bill that has been more carefully worded, but this one needs to be repealed.

Sonya Haskins, homeschool consultant
http://www.thehomeschooladvocate.com/