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Toymakers Assail Costs of New Law
Washington Post ^ | Lyndsey Layton and Annys Shin

Posted on 01/01/2009 7:07:28 AM PST by OldBlondBabe

Selecta, a German toymaker, carves whimsical cars and characters from native woods, colors them with vegetable dyes and coats them in silky beeswax. No lead, no toxic varnishes. Not even waste -- the company heats its factory with leftover woodchips. Just the kind of toymaker in demand after scares about tainted playthings from China.

But this holiday season, Selecta is preparing to pull out of the U.S. market. Its problem, executives say, is consumer legislation that is adding crushing costs to selling toys in America.

The law, which takes effect Feb. 10, was passed by Congress in response to recalls of lead-laced toys and growing health concerns about chemicals in plastics. The $22 billion toy industry says the requirements have created confusing bureaucratic layers and startling new costs that will decimate a business already struggling through a punishing recession.

For the first time, manufacturers will have to pay independent testing laboratories to verify that every component of a product meets new limits for lead and does not contain six chemicals that Congress has banned from plastic children's products.

Read here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/20/AR2008122001878.html

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Extended News; Government
KEYWORDS: congress; hr4040; manufacturing; toys
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To: OldBlondBabe

The scariest part is that last line” Congress decided” the products are unsafe. Congress. As if congress deciding something automatically makes their decision sound.


21 posted on 01/01/2009 7:34:47 AM PST by cake_crumb (Waiting for Dear Leader Obama to drop sea levels and heal Earth.)
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To: Tarpon
If you are hoping to make money off me as a customer, you're SOL... '-)

I now fish exclusively with jigs and ultralight equipment. However, I buy jig hooks by the hundred (mostly #6) and keep them and an assortment of split shot sizes in my (small) tackle box.

According to conditions, I crimp the appropriate shot size onto the bend of the hook -- and then dress it with one of my own soft plastic bodies (made from my own mold design) to match the water color.

IMHO, if there is a truly universal lure, it is the small, yellow jig. I have caught virtually everything that swims in fresh and salt water on them -- including turtles and flounder... :-}

Good luck with your business, though -- and Happy New Year!

22 posted on 01/01/2009 7:35:37 AM PST by TXnMA ("Allah": Satan's current alias...!!)
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To: OldBlondBabe

What a stupid, controlling, LIBERAL idea.


23 posted on 01/01/2009 7:38:56 AM PST by madison10
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To: al baby

Guess I better toss my Zara Spooks away......


24 posted on 01/01/2009 7:39:16 AM PST by Osage Orange (Obama's heart is blacker than the devil's riding boots...............)
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To: fella

If small manufacturers and other makers of homemande children’s goods can’t afford to test them, they can’t sell them, they can’t donate them to charity, I guess they’ll have to throw them out. When all this stuff ends up in the landfills, that’ll tick off all the tree-huggers.


25 posted on 01/01/2009 7:39:51 AM PST by OldBlondBabe
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To: OldBlondBabe

very sad indeed. My children grew up with Selecta and various other wooden toys also made in the USA. I can’t stand the ugly plastic toys which have always been marketed to young children. I understand older children have a need for variety, but young children deserve simple beauty. This will hurt a burgeoning cottage industry of craftspeople who build heirloom wooden toys.


26 posted on 01/01/2009 7:40:29 AM PST by Katya (Homo Nosce Te Ipsum)
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To: OldBlondBabe
This will stop us from obtaining any means of support other than the blasted government. Scary stuff.

So,no more Sock Monkeys? If the items separate parts have passed inspection, why reinspect and charge fees it under this law? (don't answer that)

Someone is being paid by China to get this law through. Who/how do we protest?

27 posted on 01/01/2009 7:49:33 AM PST by madison10
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To: Katya
This will hurt a burgeoning cottage industry of craftspeople who build heirloom wooden toys.


Pappy:"Yeah, but on the other hand how many ^%$# voters we talkin' about?"

28 posted on 01/01/2009 7:52:23 AM PST by yankeedame ("Oh, I can take it but I'd much rather dish it out.")
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To: OldBlondBabe

Leave it to the nanny state busybodies in Congress. Everything they touch gets ruined.


29 posted on 01/01/2009 7:52:44 AM PST by LiberConservative ("I, you know, can see, you know, upstate, you know, from my house, you know.")
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To: lgjhn23

mmmmm -— Fishes good fried. Liberals and enviro-whackos, not so much so.

We already have daily fly overs by black helicopters carrying tourists.


30 posted on 01/01/2009 8:12:45 AM PST by Tarpon (America's first principles, freedom, liberty, market economy and self-reliance will never fail.)
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To: al baby

I make lead fishing lures called jigs

Is that racist?

In the future they will be called presidential lures!


31 posted on 01/01/2009 8:16:59 AM PST by chainsaw
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To: OldBlondBabe

There’s congress at work, making our lives healthier, safer, cheaper and happier. Thank god congress knows how to invent things and is so savvy when it comes to technology. Look at all they gave us. Cars, cellphones, the internet, airplanes. I can’t wait till they pass a bill demanding the invention of teleportation and time travel./s


32 posted on 01/01/2009 8:17:36 AM PST by Cacique (quos Deus vult perdere, prius dementat ( Islamia Delenda Est ))
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To: TXnMA

I don’t really do it for business, just friends if I feel like it. Mostly my own use, to get the costs down. Now that the sources for 3 for a dollar jigs has all but disappeared, got to do something. Jigs catch everything that swims, and I am not talking the $5 painted and gussied up ones, just the cheapo white ones with sometimes a red head, it’s all in knowing how to flip your jig ...

Crafts is a dying art, no one wants to spend the time anymore.


33 posted on 01/01/2009 8:18:08 AM PST by Tarpon (America's first principles, freedom, liberty, market economy and self-reliance will never fail.)
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To: madison10

“Someone is being paid by China to get this law through.”

My husband said the same thing. Most of the affected ‘bad” toys came from China.

I looked at the legislation sponsored by Bobby Rush D IL and co-sponsorred by 106 others (mostly Dems). This legislation passed the house and senate (many repubs on board) and was signed into law by Pres. Bush! Offenders face stiff monetary penalties and imprisonment.

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d110:h.r.04040:

Do any of the idiots in congress read this crap before they sign it? I’ve been to several crafters’ forums and many are remarking that they are getting conflicting information about this law when they call the offices of their representation in Washington. Gee...what a surprise.


34 posted on 01/01/2009 8:21:53 AM PST by OldBlondBabe
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To: TribalPrincess2U

let the Chinese and others do as they please.

If a have any kind of choice, I don’t buy Chinese. I don’t trust the merchandise.


35 posted on 01/01/2009 8:22:46 AM PST by chainsaw
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To: OldBlondBabe

Its just too bad we didn’t have a Republican President that would have vetoed such nonsense.


36 posted on 01/01/2009 8:28:35 AM PST by Doohickey (The more cynical you become, the better off you'll be.)
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To: OldBlondBabe; Diana in Wisconsin; leda

Of interest, ladies.

Happy New Year all.


37 posted on 01/01/2009 8:46:01 AM PST by Gabz (Happy New Year)
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To: OldBlondBabe

Our Founding Fathers are rolling in their graves. We’ve turned into 16th century England. They should have stopped the imports from China and other such nations, NOT put the regulations on us.


38 posted on 01/01/2009 8:56:01 AM PST by madison10
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To: Gabz

what a ridiculous thing.........a shame for American families who would want to buy these toys.


39 posted on 01/01/2009 8:57:14 AM PST by tioga (Rejoice, our Savior is born.)
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To: OldBlondBabe

Bump for later.


40 posted on 01/01/2009 9:03:18 AM PST by mewzilla (In politics the middle way is none at all. John Adams)
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