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CPSIA against WAHM’s?

Did you know that many of the WAHMs that you know and love may be forced to close their doors on February 10, 2009?

This past August, the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) (PL 110-787) was passed by Congress. The goal of this act is to strengthen product safety laws and ensure that only safe products are sold to our children. Unfortunately, this act imposes several new and oppressive requirements that increase costs but do not offer any improvement in the safety of children’s clothing or footwear. The ban that most significantly affects WAHMs is the new ban on lead in children’s products and regulations that take effect beginning February 10, 2009.

The majority of the materials used to manufacture clothing and other textile products – like cloth diapers – are inherently lead-free. Traces may be found in some dyes but these amounts are well below the regulatory limits and very little remains on finished fabrics because of the low application levels and the washing that occurs during processing. However, to be sure the amounts of lead are below the regulatory limits a sample of each product needs to be tested. According to the CPSIA “the new legislation imposes an additional third-party testing requirement for all consumer products primarily intended for children twelve years of age or younger” (Section 102, part B).

With this legislation, all WAHMs who manufacture any product for children will have to send a sample of each product they make to a third party lab and pay for independent testing. Mandatory testing on these inherently lead-free products, to verify that they don’t contain lead, add a financial burden to WAHMs and other small manufacturers while providing no improvement in consumer or product safety. The cost of testing for lead ranges from $130 to $180 per test, and each product component needs to be tested separately.

For example, a jacket with two metal component parts, such as a zipper and snaps, would have to test each component separately at a total cost of $260 – $360. Previously, a small manufacturer might have spread these costs out over several styles by using the same zippers and snaps in each style, however new regulations require testing of each component part after it is removed from a sample product. So let’s say a manufacturer produces 10 different styles… with regulations that require testing of each component part after it is removed from a sample garment – one of each style – the costs of testing increase dramatically to $2,600 – $3,600!  This cost multiplies exponentially if fabrics and threads must be tested for lead, or if different dyes also require their own lead tests.

Unfortunately, without the required certification, products “cannot be sold or distributed in commerce in the United States.” Most of the products offered by WAHMs are one-of-a-kind or a small batches, but the current wording of the legislation requires that WAHMs would have to pay to test every product type – even if it is a unique item or very small batch. Requiring this level of independent testing is without a doubt cost-prohibitive for small WAHM businesses and will force many WAHMs to close their doors forever. Any WAHM or small manufacturer that can survive these costs – and there aren’t many that can – will have to pass those costs on to their customers, so you will end up on the losing end too.

And not only are WAHMs and small manufacturers required to follow these regulations, ALL manufacturers of products for children under age 12 are too. There is no way to tell exactly what will happen in February, but considering the abundance of children’s products that will need to be tested, the cost of these tests and the limited number of laboratories certified to do these tests, it is likely that children’s products will be in short supply and those that are in stock will be more costly than before.

What can you do?
1. Be informed:  Check out National Bankruptcy Day for information about the CPSIA.
2. Get involved: Contact your legislator through Legislative Trade News, or the Senate and House websites. Join the CPSIA Facebook Group to see how else you can help. If you’re a WAHM, sign the petition.
3. Be vocal! Tell everyone you know about the CPSIA – it affects consumers as well as manufacturers and WAHMs. Write letters to your local newspapers, post the above links on your favorite forums, link them in your blog, add the info to your email signature. Ask others to become involved too.

Source: Zany Zebra press release

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