I also attempted to contact our media and they must have decided it wasn’t newsworthy since no one has done any reporting on it. Just wait until their favorite seller goes out of business or the special stuff they want either costs double or isn’t there at all. Maybe THEN people will wake up. Seems like it takes that to make our complacent society do anything.
Pessimistic I know. Sorry….

I operate a very small home-based toy and children’s products business with 2 different web sites that include actual toys and some wearables. I sell many manufactured products, but I also sell many handcrafted products made by individual handcrafters and wood craftsmen. (None of the toys or children’s wear that I sell, even made by manufacturers, have ever been recalled or had to be remanufactured for safety reasons.)

The handcrafters who I contract with do not “manufacture” as such — they simply create products with items purchased through local lumber companies and fabric stores. They are not “adding” lead-based anything to their wooden toys (most are unfinished, but some are “stained” with a food-coloring based stain). The fabric capes and costumes that I sell are made by a lady who became medically disabled and needs the little bit she makes from me. These people will all suffer needlessly if this law goes through as written. Just once, I’d like to our government representatives think something through completely before passing another ridiculous law. We’ve become a country of senseless governing by half-baked laws. And we wonder why we are in economic trouble today. Laws like this protect all the wrong people, and hurt the small business person at every turn.

I think we would all agree that laws on “FOREIGN IMPORTS FROM CHINA” should be reviewed and tightened up. Chinese products are cheap for a reason. But this over-reaction by lawmakers is a national outrage and shows only that they are totally ignorant of what needs to be done. The actual % of children injured is very small in comparison to the numbers of toys sold. While certainly no child’s life is expendable, we have to be realistic and realize that some of the responsibility for child injuries from toys (with or without lead) is unavoidable, and some is unfortunately (though not necessarily negligently) the fault of the parents who give their young children age-inappropriate toys and let them play with them unsupervised. A child who still puts toys in his/her mouth should be monitored no matter what he is playing with. Would we want any of our children to “eat” even non-toxic paints? Do we want any of them to swallow magnets? Do we want any of them to choke on small parts of toys? Of course not, but where is the shared blame for the parents here? The children who became seriously ill a year or so ago from putting a Chinese-made product in their mouths (some kind of “paint dots” craft kit) . . . the paint dots were toxic and should certainly be reformulated without whatever chemical was used to make them. But again, why were children young enough to be putting these things in their mouths, playing with them to begin with? And I don’t remember the incident numbers on that particular product, but I believe it was under half a dozen.

And what about the good old-fashioned word, “accident” that is simply just not anyone’s fault? Like it or not, accidents happen every day. Some are preventable, sure; but some are so freakishly weird that they could not be anticipated or probably duplicated. A while back a little boy jumped off a top bunk into a drawstring toy bag that was hanging on the side of his bed, hanging himself. It was the most horrible and strange accident I’d ever heard of, and my heart ached for that mother who found him there; but does that mean we should now ban all drawstring toy or clothing bags? What are the chances of that happening on a widespread basis? I’m sure there are other parents out there who read of that incident and took precautions to remove similar items from their own children’s beds. That’s the kind of thing that’s needed . . . education of the possibilities, if you will . . . not more ridiculous laws that make life difficult or even impossible for our US-based companies and handcrafters. No law, no matter what it says, will stop every possible children’s accident or death. I know a family whose 7-year old son was killed falling off his bicycle several years ago — he was wearing a helmet, knee and elbow pads, but he was killed anyway. The handlegrip perforated his spleen as he fell — he died before they could get him to the hospital. It was a horrible accident, but that’s all it was — an accident.

Sometimes I’m amazed that I and my friends and siblings grew up at all in the “dangerous” lead-laden world of our old 100-year-old+ houses that we lived in, with dangerous cribs, wooden play pens, no helmets, padding, or toy restrictions of any kind except for the good sense of our parents.

I will almost certainly have to close my business this year after 10 years. And the wonderful people I have contracted with to make handcrafted toys and costumes for me will then be out of business, too. It’s especially sad because so many cottage industries are built on the very premise that once described all our US companies — personal pride and attention to detail. These people have a passion for their work and get their pleasure from watching children enjoy their creations, not from worshipping the almighty dollar. One of the woodcrafters I buy from sells his toys from his web site as well as selling them to me and a few other toy stores. He’s already had orders cancelled this past month that he was anticipating shipping in January. And I won’t be ordering anymore either at this point, unless I order on a “per sale” basis for a while. I can’t afford to get stuck with more inventory than I already have on hand . . . I’m looking at a several thousand $ loss in inventory as it is. I want to avoid bankruptcy, and will do my best to suffer through this using our family’s personal income . . . but either way, we suffer.

Write to your Congressmen again people . . . explain the facts of life to them in agonizing detail and tell them to READ every line, every word, and consider the broader implications of each and every detail of this proposed law before they vote on anything. They hold our fate in their hands, and passing this law will NOT save each and every precious child from harm, despite what they might think.