Your kid's clothing is about to become illegal!

Your kid\'s clothing is about to become illegal!

In case you hadn't heard, the CPSIA got a law passed quickly last year as a reaction to the high number of recalls of crappy China-made toys that were laced with lead. Sounds good, right?
Well, the law was then made retroactive. What does that mean?
It means that as of Feb 10th, any stock you may have that was produced before that date, any used clothing, toys, gear, in your kid's closet will be ILLEGAL to resell.
That's right! No garage sale, no ebay, Etsy, no private website, no consignment store, no thrift, NO ONE can legally sell an item produced before that day. Charity shops cannot give it away, thrifts cannot sell it, YOU cannot sell it. Technically, by letter of the law, you can't even hand it down to your neighbor's kid.
What if it's vintage? Nope, can't do it. It was produced before the date the law goes into effect and was intended for use by someone under 12.
Where will all this stuff end up? Just guess. The Salvation Army, Goodwill, your local church charity shop...if they intend to follow the law, they will have to dump it. It will fill their dumpsters and they will have to PAY to get rid of it. That means they will have that much less to put towards good causes.

My local SA store makes 5% of their monthly sales off of kids clothing sales. Not much? Multiply that average $600 in sales by 12, then multiply that number by the number of SA stores there are in the country (1370 stores). Suddenly that 5% at my rinkydink SA is nearing $9 MILLION that will not be there to provide relief after storms, shelter battered women, provide education and medical assistance...not to mention giving people a way to extend their budgets when clothing their kids. Same goes for Goodwill's 2200 stores, and their assistance to the mentally challenged who just want a job.

Yes, there should be something in a law that makes it illegal for these toy conglomos to bring crappy lead laced toys into the country. However, not every toy in the whole world has lead in it. Not EVERY article of clothing should be treated like toxic waste.

My Mom started her own business from the ground up, selling gently used, consigned, children's goods. She is looking at loosing everything she's put into this business. She will loose her retirement job, I'll loose my occasional part time job, and every family that shops her store will loose a venue that helps extend their strapped incomes. Her consignors will loose a source of income. It is likely that she will have to close up shop, if not forever, at least for a few years. She is not the only one.

This law needs to be dissected, rewritten, and reviewed carefully.

Will you help? Time is of the essence. Please follow this link to the NARTS website (Natn'l Association of Retail and Thrift Stores), they're like the VFG for thrifts!
There you will find out some more info, and can follow links to sign a petition and write your area's representatives to voice your opinion.

Sign the petition started by NARTS

Thanks!

Jenn

 

Although it's still imporant to sign the petition and forward letters to your representatives, you should know that they HAVE made some progress:

"On Jan. 8th the CPSC revised its position to exclude thrift and consignment stores. Keep the heat on Congress as the CPSC rulemaking is still underway."
Here's the link to the new position:
http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml09/09086.html


:singing:

 

Yes, they issued a press release "revision" but have yet to put it into the law.

 

Petition signed, emails to Congress sent...

Thanks for alerting us to this idiocy, Jenn.

BTW, what is the CPSIA (other than stupid)?

 

consumer product safety improvement act

 

Thanks!

 

I read the same thing that Kristine did... There was a big article about it in our paper last week. According to that, they're going to exempt thrifts & consignment stores, except for items that are known to have high lead content or that there's a likelihood they would have. Most clothing wouldn't fall into that category.

My understanding was that sellers would be required to TEST every item for lead content, then, of course, not sell those with lead content higher than the limits. That, in effect, would put consignment stores that specialize in chilren's items out of business, because the cost of testing would be prohibitive.

 

signed and posting to facebook!!:mad: i only buy resale stuff.. i am a FREAK about recycling

 

This is an excellent reference web blog that really takes an indepth look at the questions regarding used / vintage:

http://www.thesmartmama.com/bg/

If you haven't written to your legislators yet, please do so ASAP!

 

According to Snopes, used clothing is not included - of course it does say that sellers should ensure that all clothing is acceptable as far as the lead etc levels go, just that they don't have to test them. Not sure how you can be sure of that without testing...but it should be a relief all the same.

Nicole

 

Done!