Will The Children Be Safer Naked?
Alana Semuels writes for the LA Times about new "safety" regulations set to take effect next month that could force thousands of retailers and thrift stores to throw away piles and piles of children's clothing:
The law, aimed at keeping lead-filled merchandise away from children, mandates that all products sold for those age 12 and younger -- including clothing -- be tested for lead and phthalates, which are chemicals used to make plastics more pliable. Those that haven't been tested will be considered hazardous, regardless of whether they actually contain lead."They'll all have to go to the landfill," said Adele Meyer, executive director of the National Assn. of Resale and Thrift Shops.
The new regulations take effect Feb. 10 under the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act, which was passed by Congress last year in response to widespread recalls of products that posed a threat to children, including toys made with lead or lead-based paint.
Supporters say the measure is sorely needed. One health advocacy group said it found high levels of lead in dozens of products purchased around the country, including children's jewelry, backpacks and ponchos.
Lead can also be found in buttons or charms on clothing and on appliques that have been added to fabric, said Charles Margulis, communications director for the Center for Environmental Health in Oakland. A child in Minnesota died a few years ago after swallowing a lead charm on his sneaker, he said.
...There is the possibility of a partial reprieve. The Consumer Product Safety Commission, which is responsible for enforcing the law, on Monday will consider exempting clothing and toys made of natural materials such as wool or wood. The commission does not have the authority to change the law but can decide how to interpret it.
But exempting natural materials does not go far enough, said Stephen Lamar, executive vice president of the American Apparel and Footwear Assn. Clothes made of cotton but with dyes or non-cotton yarn, for example, might still have to be tested, as would clothes that are cotton-polyester blends, he said.
"The law introduces an extraordinarily large number of testing requirements for products for which everyone knows there's no lead," he said.
How about we leave it to parents to actually...parent? When I was growing up, there was some problem with the milk in Michigan, so my mom paid extra for Alta-Dena milk from California from the health food store. Parents should educate themselves about which toys potentially contain lead, and make the decision about what to buy, same as they decide what age their kid gets to cross the street without them and all the rest. Manufacturers can choose to put their products up for testing, same as manufacturers do with the UL listing. Otherwise, just when the economy is particularly terrible and people need to shop at thrift stores for kids' clothes and keep their businesses going, a lot of people are going to be in a lot of trouble.
Take my neighbor's toy company, for example. She makes board games out of organic cotton with vegetable dyes. The pieces are wood. Wood that doesn't come from the lead tree. Hers is yet another small business that will be out of business if these regulations aren't drop-kicked. Tammy Vigil writes for Fox about toys needing to be tested for lead:
For the first time, toymakers and those who create goods for children, will have to pay an independent third party to test for chemicals in their products. The change spurred after scares from tainted toys made in China.A group called Handmade Toy Alliance is coming out against these new regulations. They have members all over the country, including at least three in Colorado.
Jennifer vanVorst of Denver owns Turtle Park Tots. She makes and sells baby and toddler accessories, like bibs, blankets and changing pads, out of her basement.
She supports new stringent testing for lead, but not for everyone--and not at the huge expense.
"As of February 10, everything I make has to be certified its been tested for lead," she says.
But she only uses fabrics--some organic--and none which contain lead or one of six banned chemicals called phthalates.
"The sense I get from the law is a knee jerk reaction to Mattel and the testing going on and finding so much lead," says vanVorst.
She sees it as a one-size-fits-all solution after recalls of thousands of imported toys with lead paint in 2007.
It's testing that will cost vanVorst $600-$700 per $10 bib to test. "For a company like me. I can't take a hit like that. I'm not making a huge profit."






