CPSIA: Unintended, Untimely Pressure on Moms and Families
Moms are facing pressures from all angles these days, from balancing the budget with an even tighter belt, to being just a bit more selective about the chemicals used in the clothes their children wear and the toys they learn and play with.
As an unintended result of a Congressional effort to eliminate dangerous products for children, a mom's job is about to become more expensive at the worst possible time.
During the 2007 Christmas season, Americans were faced with an abundance of toy recalls due to excessive lead content and choking hazards. Embarrassed and annoyed, members of Congress vowed to take action about a Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) they asserted was no longer willing or able to protect American consumers.
In the months after the recalls, Congress wrote the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA). The CPSIA takes effect on Feb 10, 2009. Despite an election season that had Congress taking sides on everything, the law was an election year match made in heaven: the bill had only FOUR "No" votes between the Senate and House combined.
The Act sets strict maximum levels for lead content: 600 parts per million (ppm) by February 10, 2009 and 300ppm by August 2009. 1 part per million is equivalent to one drop of water diluted into 13 gallons (roughly 1 tank of gas in a compact car). 300 parts per million is about 5 minutes out of roughly 11½ days.
By now, you have to be wondering "How does this affect my child and I? Lower lead levels sound great."
Indeed they do. The problem is that the law's implementation punishes those who create products with the utmost levels of care, even if they use all natural or all organic materials.
Let's look at an example from a recent MamaSpeaks post, Sweet Peanut. If you look carefully at the larger picture of the cute little guy wearing the Sweet Peanut outfit, you'll see fabric, stitching, applique and, likely hidden in the photo, snaps or buttons.
Each of those items must be scanned separately, meaning that the manufacturer has to come up with the money for at least four tests. Those costs will be passed on to moms. If that cute little blue outfit is available in 5 other colors, a total of 20 successful tests are necessary before that outfit can be sold.
A record of each lot's testing must be documented on a certificate and kept on file in case any retailer or CPSC investigator wants to review it. All of these things have costs and those costs will undoubtedly be passed onto the moms.
While Mattel, Wal-Mart, Toys-R-Us and other large corporate manufacturers and retailers might manufacture 100,000 items from one set of materials (a "lot"), the conscientious homemade outfit maker might make 25. The cost of 20 product tests every 100,000 items is easy to hide in the price of your product.
Even from reasonably priced testing vendors, the costs faced by a mom who makes baby booties, bibs, diapers, diaper covers, books (yes, books) or nursery furniture are substantial.
First, each "lot" of items must be tested. For clothing, this means each color of the same garment has to be tested, adding additional costs to the manufacturing process - and of course, to the retail price. It isn't so easy to hide an expense of that size in the price of 25 items.
This law's testing requirements impact every product for children on Etsy, eBay, your local children's boutique and, in fact, every handcrafted children's product reviewed here at Mama Speaks. They must all be tested for lead content.
The CPSIA hits some moms even harder: moms who shop at thrift stores.
An unusual feature of the law says that items failing to meet these lead standards are deemed a "banned hazardous substance", even if it was manufactured 5 years ago. Result: These used items cannot be sold. In fact, any item that cannot pass that test must be removed from shelves.
The CPSC's said *in non-binding language from their general counsel* that thrift/resale shops could sell items manufactured before Feb 10 and that they are not forced to test for lead. Good thing, as thrift stores cannot absorb that cost per item. But there's a catch... The CPSC's clarification says resellers/thrift stores don't have to test items, but they do have to comply with the lead content law.
Despite being trumpeted as an exemption by many major national newspapers, it actually doesn't let anyone off the hook.
When asked by a reporter how a thrift store might reach a "level of comfort" about the lead content of their products, CPSC spokesperson Julie Vallese said “they simply need to make a business decision at a level of confidence that the products that they are selling meet the law.” and continued with the following advice about what thrift store owners should do to reach that level of comfort: "the law does not define that..."they can look at it and make an informed decision, they can call the manufacturer or they can test".
The testing between now and August 2009 can be done using a $40,000 handheld tool called a XRF scanner. Some consultants charge $5 per item or $100 per hour to XRF test items, others charge substantially more.
Unfortunately, it gets worse.
As of August 2009, all testing must be done by "accredited 3rd party labs". Amazingly, these labs can be in China, the source of the vast majority of the recalls that provoked this legislation.
For big box stores and major toy and clothing manufacturers, this is a hassle, but it isn't an expense that is going to bankrupt them.
The cost of testing by certified labs is far more than the retail price of many items sold by conscientious moms.
What is surprising is that Congress didn't appear to put any thought into the impact on small businesses and the thousands of work-at-home moms and others who make toys, clothing, diaper covers, books, nursery equipment, educational materials and a litany of other goods that fall under the auspices of this law.
No one knitting $27 organic cotton baby booties can afford to send every pair out of town for testing, paying for the testing and the shipping (both ways), but some will try.
It will make their products less competitive because of the incremental rise in overhead that also adds yet another paperwork task to the small business owner's already long list of tasks in that area.
In August, it gets worse since XRF testing is no longer sufficient to please the CPSC.
Those 3rd party testing labs must do destructive testing, meaning that every lot of items must have 1 item tested. Each color must be tested, since the raw materials are different. One of a kind items are obviously at the end of their life, since destructive testing clearly destroys the product.
That kind old grandpa down the street who makes one-off wooden rocking horses will soon face a $100,000 fine if he sells them because he can't make a one-off item and have it tested.
So how do we fix the law for moms who own small businesses while keeping children safe? Most experts say that allowing component testing would relieve small businesses of the burden this law poses, without reducing the risk to children.
Component testing would require testing of fabric by the bolt, for example, without requiring that each garment made from that bolt is retested.
Finally, there's the ripple effect.
Every mom who makes homemade products for kids under 12 is impacted by this law. If they are forced to close (many already have), their business will no longer be spending money locally on office supplies, accounting, legal services, websites, bacon, tires, gasoline, UPS/Fedex/USPS shipping, etc. They'll no longer be buying those things, or they'll be buying less of them.
That rolls downhill to every other small business in town. Many of these small businesses will be forced to layoff employees. I spoke with one last week who was going to lose 30 employees.
When those employees no longer have a job as of February 10th, they will enter the tightest job market of their lives. They will cut back even more until they figure out how to get by - and that cut back will impact the businesses in their community even more.
Currently, the employees of these homemade product businesses spend their money in your town, at businesses where you, your spouse and your friends work.
Will they have anything to spend after February 10th?
Mark Riffey helps small businesses from Maine to California solve their marketing, operations and technology problems. He teaches business owners how to make their marketing and advertising accountable to them, transforming them from an expense into an investment. He also works with business owners to systemize their business processes and automate time-wasting work that eats into profit and steals away the freedom all business owners seek.
Mark can be reached at his blog, http://www.rescuemarketing.com/blog/.
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