happy handmade holidays!
ROMP is committed to handmade goods and we know you are too. frighteningly, handmade goods in the US are under attack. can you help?
you've all heard about the large toy manufacturers who outsource production to China (and other countries) selling toys with dangerously high lead content, unsafe small parts, improperly secured and easily swallowed small magnets, and toys made from chemicals that made kids sick. almost every problem toy in 2007 was made in China.
the US Congress rightly recognized that the Consumer Products Safety Commission (CPSC) lacked the authority and staffing to prevent dangerous toys from being imported into the US. so, in august of '08, they passed the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA). among the good things the legisplation does, like banning lead and phthalates in toys, it mandates third-party testing and certification for ALL toys and requires toy makers to permanently label each toy with a date and batch number.
these changes will be easy for the large, multinational toy manufacturers to comply with. those who make thousands of units of each toy have very little incremental cost to pay for testing and updating their plastics molds to include batch labels.
but for small north american and european toymakers - especially those who hand-craft their goods - the costs of mandatory testing (up to $4,000 per toy!) will likely drive them out of business. the wicked irony is that these sorts of toys had nothing to do with the toy safety problems of 2007.
the CPSIA forgot to exclude the class of toys that have earned and kept the public's trust. unless this law is modified, as of February 10, 2009, handmade toys made by small toymakers will no longer be legal in the USA!!
but, there is hope! with your help, we can change this law! here's how:
1. sign the petition - this takes 2 seconds!
2. vote to modify the CPSIA on change.org this site is so cool! the top 10 ideas from change.org will be presented to President Obama on inauguration day. we're currently number 1 in the economy section - let's keep it that way - please VOTE!
3. phone your representatives in the house & senate.
4. write a letter to congress use this sample letter or write your own.
5. join the save handmade facebook group
6. join the CPSIA discussion group