Posted on 01/01/2009 2:39:21 PM PST by buccaneer81
New law seems to ban resale of toys Items sold for kids must be certified lead-free on Feb. 10 Thursday, January 1, 2009 3:29 AM By Bill Bush THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
The toys Allison George likes to buy at Trader Tots may not be available under a law that goes into effect Feb. 10. Trader Tots has been buying and selling used toys in Grandview Heights for almost two decades, but it, like resale shops nationwide, fears that a new law will force costly lead tests and hurt business.
Congress enacted the law last year in response to recalls of imported toys laced with lead.
The law requires all items marketed to children 12 or under to be certified lead-free.
Resale stores believe this means that they would have to test older toys for lead.
Trader Tots co-owner Anne Bush-Cassady said the store will stop selling toys before the Feb. 10 deadline. Toys, she said, make up about 25 percent of the store's sales.
"We can't afford to test everything that (comes) in the door," she said. "So all of this is going to get thrown out. What you already have in your house, in a year, year and half, there will be no value, no donatable value and no retail value.
"They will become trash."
It's not just toys. The National Association of Retail and Thrift Shops says the law could apply to clothes, books, electronic devices, furniture -- anything marketed to children.
"The public is going to be so confused," said Adele Meyer, executive director of the association, which represents about 1,000 resale stores in the United States and Canada.
"How are you going to explain to them that the dress that they bought for Christmas, they can't resell it, they can't donate it."
Selling uncertified items could be punishable by imprisonment and a fine of as much as $100,000 per violation, Meyer said.
She said she doesn't believe Congress had resale stores in mind when it passed the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 in response to a rash of reports about tainted toys, most of which are made overseas.
"We're not against product safety," Meyer said. "We do not want to sell or do anything to harm children. But we're talking about products that were safe to be sold on Feb. 9. We are not talking about recalled products."
A spokesman for the Consumer Product Safety Commission did not return a call yesterday.
Meyer said she hopes that the commission clarifies the law before the February deadline. If not, there could be legal questions about items sold at garage sales, on eBay and Craigslist.
"This is the most acutely complex act," she said.
Nadine Ballard, chief of the Consumer Protection Section of the Ohio attorney general's office, said that an advisory opinion on the Consumer Product Safety Commission's Web site appears to confirm the thrift stores' understanding of the law.
The advisory opinion states that the lead limit "applies to product in inventory or on store shelves" on Feb. 10, not products manufactured after a certain date.
"It looks like they are making a very broad reading of it," she said. "At the end of that date, it has to be off their shelves."
Despite that, Ballard said the law appears to be aimed chiefly at manufacturers, not individuals or small stores selling used goods.
"Clearly, we can't go to every garage sale in America and start fining people," she said.
bbush@dispatch.com
Just watch. They'll try.
watch out Ebay.
And people wonder why the US economy is heading into late Soviet Union territory.
Yeah, it'll appear that way until some adventuresome lawyer finds a lead-tainted toy in a thrift shop and sues them into next week.
I think it’s pretty obvious the law was not aimed at resale.
This is just being blown out of proportion.
However, it needs clarified.
The guys who buy the full cover ads on the back of the phone books probably have February 10 circled on their calendars.
Is this for the children?
This is just being blown out of proportion.
We've seen how this turns out. Usually badly for normal folks.
No, it's for the lawyers.
Yeah, it'll appear that way until some adventuresome lawyer finds a lead-tainted toy in a thrift shop and sues them into next week. This is exactly what the lawyers in the legislature intended when they wrote the law the way they did.
Once again congress acts before they think.
They tried to make people collect and pay sales tax at yard sales in Tennessee a couple of years ago. Everyone just ignored them.
Democrats - doing everything they can to help the big corporations and put the small businesses out of work.
And anger Wal-Mart?
No politician has brass ones big enough.
It be for da chillum so de grow up to bees 'Bambi voters.
The do - gooders have taken the child out of childhood in the last 15 years. It is all a supervised sham of nannyism.
I hate hyphenated last names. I wonder if one of her kids is named Sundance?
Have you read the 62 page law? It isn’t only testing for lead either. It is testing for pthalates in the plastics too. “Anything a kid could put in his mouth.”
I sell kids toys. We’re in process of getting the manufactures to assure the safety of the existing toys on the shelf. Those that aren’t...can’t be sold, donated, or even exported back for credit.
This new law that takes effect Feb 10. (HR4040) is onerous and will require manufacturers to certify that any product they make that can possibly come in contact with those aged 12 and under be free of lead and phthalates.
This means all of us working in the craft and fair industry as a micro-business must follow the requirements. Reading the bill Bush signed into law last August indicates it will force someone like myself to spend an estimated $4000 per item to declare it lead and phthalate free.
I make tye dye shirts, not only do the shirts have to be tested, but the dyes as well. If I use 25 different dyes, thats what, $100K. If I re-order the dyes, one again the testing needs to be done. Same with the cotton shirts.
Relying on the word of the shirt maker or dye supplier will not do. Penalties of five years in jail and up to $15M in fines plus asset forfeiture.
The Mom and pop manufacturing business is now finished.
Retailers are affected too. the selling of non-certified inventory will also be illegal.
From what I am reading on crafter forums, widespread panic has set in, and for good reason. Grandpa can no longer make those wooden trains for sale at the local street fair. Grandma can no longer sew those cute little baby bibs because she has to certify that the material she purchase at the fabric store meets the requirements. At $4000 per piece of cloth—she is now out of business.
Bring manufacturing back to the US? Now congress says we can’t even manufacture anything that might come into contact with children 12 years old or under... Unreal...
Put stickers/patches on EVERYTHING
"Not intended, or available for sale, for children under 13 years of age."
A CYA maneuver... kind of like the "choking hazard" warnings on toys that even an elphant couldn't choke on.... or "tree nut" warnings on peanut butter
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