I’m sure that almost every­one heard about all the recalls and scares that have been in the news over the past cou­ple years. Too much lead in paint. Parts are too small. Is there any­thing that’s safe for your fam­ily? Some­times it seems like the answer is no. So, in response to the feel­ing that peo­ple were hav­ing, the Con­sumer Prod­uct Safety Com­mis­sion (CPSC) responded. They devel­oped the Con­sumer Prod­uct Safety Improve­ment Act (CPSIA). Great, right? In the­ory, yes. Unfor­tu­nately, in prac­tice, the CPSIA nearly guar­an­tees that many small busi­nesses, arti­sans, and oth­ers will be put out of business.

The CPSIA bans lead and phtha­lates in toys (obvi­ously a good thing) but it man­dates enor­mously expen­sive third-party test­ing and cer­ti­fi­ca­tion for all prod­ucts intended for chil­dren under the age of 12. It’s the ridicu­lous expense of the third-party test­ing and cer­ti­fi­ca­tion that will close busi­nesses and make it ille­gal for work-at-home moms and dads to sell their hand­made goods.

5 Min­utes for Mom

If this passes, basi­cally, all we will be able to buy will be prod­ucts from stores and big busi­nesses. No more home­made baby blan­kets, no more home­made dolls or doll clothes, no more home­made baby car­ri­ers or cloth dia­pers. It will be a big change, and I don’t think it will be for the bet­ter. I under­stand the inten­tions are good. Truly, I under­stand that. How­ever, let’s not pass some­thing just to do it. Let’s get a good, effec­tive, and imple­mentable law in place from the start.

Let your voice be heard. Here’s what you can do:

• Write your con­gress­peo­ple. Find your Rep­re­sen­ta­tive here and your Sen­a­tor here.
• Write the CPSC.
• Post your con­cerns on your blog, on Face­book, or on MySpace.
• Send an email directly to the CPSC or con­tact chair­per­son Nancy Nord at 301–504-7923
• Twit­ter: Search using the #CPSIA hashtag
• Join the CPSIA Face­book Group
• Join these Etsy folks and send a hand­made toy to Con­gress­man Rush.