UPDATED: Alarming New Children's Toy Law

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. A new law is about to go into effect that aims to keep toys and other children's products tainted with lead paint out of the hands of kids. However, outrage is souring over the law because the new regulations could really hurt second hand retailers. I have gotten several emails about this new law in the last few days.


From Digital Journal: The January 20 2009 deadline for millions of American homecrafters to object to a new law requiring expensive testing of their products, is approaching fast. Child-products without certificates proving they have no lead content, will have to be scrapped.


The new Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act – passed hastily to bar poisonous foreign products – also will require millions of American homecrafters to have each of their products tested at huge cost, ranging from $500 to $4000 per product – including their old stock which was manufactured before this law had even been thought up. See law here


Formal complaints against this act must be lodged before January 20 2009 Comments must be labelled: Section 102 Mandatory Third-Party Testing of Component Parts'. Lodge complaints here Without the CPSI certificate of compliance, millions of homecrafters selling their products on EBay, at fairs, in home-shops and at charity shops face conviction under this Act, which goes into effect on February 10 this year. Conviction carries tens of thousands of dollars in fines and potentially even jail time.


No more selling old things on eBay or Craigslist... And all the products sold on eBay or Craigslist will also require such certificates of compliance or they will be breaking the law. Also affected: millions of charities, which will no longer be able to accept donations without a certificate of compliance. And this certificate can only be obtained through expensive testing by an SCPC-accredited laboratory."


Thanks to C.J. Summers at the Peoria Chronicle for sending this article!


Here's how ABC breaks down the new law. It sounds like second hand stores won't be prosecuted because the law is aimed at new products being put at store shelves.


FROM ABC: A law set to take effect next month has secondhand stores worried about
reselling children's clothing and toys. Justin Schmidt explains the law and why it will soon be illegal for anyone to sell children's items without expensive testing first.

For 18 years, Karen Shaffer has been reselling children's clothes and toys at "Mommy and Me."
But that might have to change. Not only items manufactured after February the 10th must be in compliance with the new lead standards, but all children's products must be compliant.



As part of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act, any product sold after February 10th must be under the 600 parts per million limit for lead. At that time all children's products sold must be certified. New products will be certified before being shipped to stores. but selling older products, like here at "Mommy and Me," or at your next garage sale, the cost of that certification is out of reach.



The equipment to buy the XRF guns to do the lead testing, are $35,000. As the act stands now, come February 10th, all of this might be considered hazardous, and something as simple as selling this toy, becomes a lot more complicated. But Safe Kids Kansas, which is part of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, says the intention of the law is to keep unsafe toys off the shelves, not to hassle secondhand retailers.



The first time purchase of these products, as they become safer, then as the secondhand toys move into the secondhand retailers area, then they will be safer. The new law does raise plenty of questions though. "At this point, we have no clear guidelines on how to comply."

An attorney says as long as secondhand stores make a good faith effort to only sell safe toys, it's unlikely they will be prosecuted, even though selling uncertified toys is technically illegal under the new law.

UPDATE: This is the exact language from the CPSC: 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.

I talked to several local people about how this new law will impact them. I am hoping we will have that story for you on HOI 19 THURSDAY AT 6PM. I will post it here later tonight.


-NewsAnchorMom Jen