the green*vanilla baby blog has been updated... the new hat has been added! since madison has figured out how to reach around to the back of her head and take her hats off, she's no longer interested in being my little live billboard. bummer. my next best thing? just take the hat to biolife for sample display. that's where most of my orders have come from, so it seems the logical thing to do. the daycare lady was excited. she wanted one right away.
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anyway, in related news, there's been quite a bit of uproar in the handmade community about new cpsia rules regarding handmade items. anything intended for children age 12 and under will very soon be required to undergo lead and phthalate testing. at a minimum, these tests cost $300. bad, huh? it gets worse. now, the cpsia wants everything tested in batches... that means that every time any component of that particular handmade item is from a new lot number, package or whatever, the entire bunch of products (considered a new batch) must have a test done. only one item from that batch is tested, but still... and if the components overlap (say, the snaps run out just before the zippers but both run out after the fabric has already been cut into for an apparel item), that means more than one test for that batch. so- confused yet? so are we. it's ridiculous... having to spend between $300 and $4000 just to test a batch of handmade items that collectively will bring in far less than that? crazy. so naturally, i was quite concerned... i was preparing to take down my etsy shop and just go by word of mouth for as long as possible, seeing as how one skein of yarn doesn't make many hats at all. i'd either have to call it quits or jack the price WAY up on those babies... until i saw an article on the cpsia forum over at etsy. yarn, my friends, is EXEMPT from the testing laws!! i think i can speak for all of us knitters and crocheters when i say that while we are overjoyed at this bit of news, we're still quite upset about all these mundane laws being put into place. it's going to be the end of the majority of the handmade community.
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i'm sure that most of you don't care too much, but i thought i'd let everyone in on what's going on... and if you want to do something about it, reseach it and write to your congressman, senator, anyone who could have any kind of impact on reversing these silly laws. if you want to, that is. i plan to, even though the only thing it affects me on is the nickel-plated alligator clips i use to make the flower embellishments removeable.
thanks for bearing with me...!
4 comments:
WOW! It cracks me up that they want/have to do all this intesive testing on handmade/homemade products.. yet we have millions of recalls of factory-produced items all the time. Not to mention how unsafe most of them are. wow! :)
yup- this all started after the majority of the toy and children's products manufacturing was relocated to china and whatnot... the whole tainted paint thing a little while ago is what spurred the cpsia thing into high-gear. personally, i think the whole thing is just sick- there are SO many people out there who rely on the few handmade things they sell to make ends meet. it's just kind of a given, when you buy a handmade item, that it's not factory-quality, hasn't had the same testing, etc., and that's the way it should stay, i think!
That's pretty huge.. good thing yarn is excluded!!
Every parent should be up in arms about the CPSIA. This law is going to impoverish the creative and educational environments of children. The immense amount of money wasted by this law will ultimately result in less safe products rather than more safe. And the irrational fears engendered by this law are just sick. Our children are being taught to fear everything they touch, every business and every business person. This, of course, includes their parents. Nor can their parents be trusted to protect them from much of anything.
According to this law, only the government can protect them by massive certification and surveillance of business. And by frightening parents out of having garage sales.
Also, if this is what passes as critical thinking in our highest law making bodies how can we expect our children to learn good critical thinking skills. Our congress should be an example of clear thinking, common sense, and leadership. Instead they are showing themselves to be the befuddled followers of the sad and irrational fears of the consumer groups. And they don’t seem to care as long as the mass of their constituents are unaware of what’s going on. In other words they care more about votes than they do your children.
Most of us wouldn’t mind this law so much if it had a basis in reality. But it doesn’t. This law is premised on the assumption that trace amounts of lead in books pose real danger to children, that lead in the valve stems of bicycles is dangerous or that some lead in a component of a microscope for an eight year old is significantly dangerous, and on and on and on… This is patently ridiculous.
If Congress cared more about children than votes they would fix this right now. If they don’t have time to rework it they could simply admit their mistake and repeal it.
The road to hell is being paved by the pathological fears of consumer groups. And our Congress appears to be unable or unwilling to separate reality from fantasy. They need to regain the ability to evaluate evidence independently from the fear mongering of consumer groups or, FOR OUR CHILDRENS SAKE – not just businesseses, we need to replace them.
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