second hand childrens clothes illegal?

the simple dolloar ^ | 01/04/09 | megben

[Megben]

Trent Hamm at thesimpledollar.com writes in his January 3 entry (excerpted) : "For those of you who haven’t heard the news yet, on February 10, 2009, the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act comes into effect. One of the major changes that this program will bring into play is a mandate that everything sold for children 12 and younger will have to be tested for lead and phthalates, and anything that isn’t tested (or that fails) will be considered hazardous and cannot be sold. Read more about the CPSIA at the L.A. Times and some interesting blog commentary from the fashion industry. Where things get interesting is with used products. Consider your local resale and thrift shop. Currently, all of their secondhand children’s clothes will have to be tested for lead and phthalates. Given that many such stores aren’t high-income operations - many are nonprofits - these shops simply cannot afford to do the testing on the children’s clothes on their shelves.

So what happens? Most thrift shops are currently not accepting any children’s clothing at all. Sometime in the next month or so, all thrift shops will have to clear all of their children’s clothing from the shelves … and send them to the landfill. (It’s worth noting that the Consumer Product Safety Commission is considering a reprieve for products made from natural materials, which would exempt some clothes, but not nearly all clothes"

From reading the whole article, it appears that this will apply to used/new products that are sold at garage sales, thrift stores, ebay, etc. The discussion that follows the blog posts lists going to the sites of the National Bankruptcy Day or the Handmade Toy Alliance Site to write your congressman/woman.

[Megben]

My youngest is almost out of children's clothes. This would have killed the family budget if it had gone into effect sooner. In this economy, I don't see how families can afford this. The cost of the lead testing will be passed on to us making the clothes that much more expensive.

This is one of my first posts here, but I felt it was worth pointing out. If anyone knows how to put the links in, please do.

[TommyDale]

Will the next step be Big Brother preventing “hand me downs”?

[caver]

It looks like we will have more items on the black market.

[Evil Slayer]

Will this effect garage sales?

[autumnraine]

Oh. My. God.

I have three kids that almost all their clothes are yardsale and thrift store clothing. And if the clothes are priced higher for lead testing...

This is insane.

[DYngbld]

I have four kids I guess I’ll just have to break the law. I have boxes of kids cloths in the attic that I pass down from Kid to kid.

[autumnraine]

I think I just found a loophole.

Get a big ole stack of paper plates at your yard sale.

For every $2.00 paper plate you buy, you get a bundle of used clothes for FREE.

There, problem solved, haha

[Ghost of Philip Marlowe]

I'm just starting to look into this legislation.

But it appears that big corps used the tainted products from China as an excuse to pass legislation that is designed to destroy small business and especially folks making craft-type items in their home and selling them online.

Does this law require that Hallmark (and others) send all birthday cards for 1-12 year olds out for tests, but not 13 and above. It really is a stupid piece of legislation.

Bad law not only doesn't help, it does damage.

[csmusaret]

So who voted for this and who voted against it?

[gridlock]

Fear not. The Democrat Party will be happy to provide long-wearing and fashionable clothing to your children...

[Ghost of Philip Marlowe]

Note that this law isn't restricted to clothing. It covers ANYTHING that is designed to be sold to a child under 12. Some of the larger stores have stopped selling toothbrushes (the aisles are empty) because when this law becomes effective, all of those toothbrushes that haven't been tested (according to the standards in this legislation, though all the components may have been tested) will be illegal.

[DieHard the Hunter]

I suspect a fair bit of pragmatism may go into the enforcement of this law. Alternatively, it may get rigidly enforced until it eventually gets tested in court and a pragmatic judge declares the law unenforceable.

That’s what would happen here in New Zealand, I hope that’s what would happen in the US...?

[wintertime]

This would have killed the family budget
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Ours too!

One of the reasons we could afford to homeschool was the savings in clothing. They kids were satisfied to wear fewer clothes, and those clothes were most often from the local Goodwill. I could completely outfit a kid for sometimes less than $50 a year. ( Except for shoes that were from Payless and underwear).

The savings in clothing alone paid for the homeschooing expenses.

Personally....If lobbyists want to fight this, they should get the homeschooling crowd activated. All the homeschoolers I knew ( and currently know) are very dependent on the thrift stores.

[pnh102]

Oh well. People will simply have to donate clothes to one another under the table like they have been doing for eons now.

I can't tell you all how much baby girl clothing we've received from very generous friends who were willing to part with it. I know I plan to give it away to another young couple in the future once our childbearing days are finished.

[Da Coyote]

Yup, the govt that has mortgaged children into socialist oblivion doesn’t want them to wear uninspected clothes.

The revolution is coming, chillens.

Please, please, select me to be on Pelosi’s firing squad.

[cowtowney]

Just ignore it.

We’ve got new law overload. Not enough people to enforce most laws anyway.

[Evil Slayer]

Oh, the carefree days of “Little House on the Prairie” where the Ingles had everything they needed without government intervention (and were happy, healthy and wise). Bring those days back.

[Arrowhead]

Well, that was the first thing I thought too. But, there is no way to enforce such inane policies. So, given that, what we can do is circumvent the new law by bartering. Even at garage sales, the baby section can be used to trade for other things.

Remember all those reports from Lou Dobbs about China's use of lead in toys, etc.? I wonder if this law is a result from those reports? Regardless, it seems when we try to hold our government accountable to problems that arise, the solution these bozos come up with always costs us more than had we never complained.

Frankly, I am ashamed of this government (not of America). Everything they do is about controlling the masses and taking their hard-earned money (and that goes for both parties); not liberating them.

When will the American People "throw off" such bands of tyranny?

Arrowhead>>>----the Establishment--->

[pnh102]

I suspect a fair bit of pragmatism may go into the enforcement of this law. Alternatively, it may get rigidly enforced until it eventually gets tested in court and a pragmatic judge declares the law unenforceable.

That’s what would happen here in New Zealand, I hope that’s what would happen in the US...?

We no longer have pragmatic judges here. With our luck, the first judge who gets his hands on such a case will probably expand this silly law even further.