And the one’s who know better and are fighting for the law (just so some law will pass no matter how bad it is) don’t care. Like in the paper today:

David Arkush is director of the Congress Watch division of Public Citizen, one of the half-dozen or so activist groups that pushed for passage of the CPSIA. Although Arkush says he’s only now starting to hear from small, independent manufacturers, he believes the claims about excessive testing costs are the result of poor information from the Consumer Product Safety Commission, if not a deliberate misinformation campaign.

“Some of their perceptions of what the costs are going to be are really overblown,” Arkush asserts. The CPSC “is not a bunch of jackbooted thugs who are going to come lock people up if they’re not complying with the law.”

Arkush admits some of the mandates may sound absurd at first blush, such as testing wooden toys for phthalates, or testing cotton T-shirts for lead.
“But we’re erring on the side of safety,” he adds, “because this is about lead and other toxic chemicals that are very dangerous to children.”

Of course he is trying to talk around the issues but, taken point for point, this makes no sense.

When David Arkush states “he believes the claims about excessive testing costs are the result of poor information from the Consumer Product Safety Commission, if not a deliberate misinformation campaign…Some of their perceptions of what the costs are going to be are really overblown” is he saying that testing is not hundreds to thousands of dollars per each item as the testing companies are quoting, is he saying that each type of item need not be tested as the law is presently interpreted, or is he saying that these are both true but thats not really a lot of money to small independent manufacturers. Is he also saying that testing all currently held inventory intended for those under 12 is not going to be too burdensome for small retailers?

When he says “The CPSC ‘is not a bunch of jackbooted thugs who are going to come lock people up if they’re not complying with the law.’” is he really saying that small independent manufacturers and resellers shouldn’t worry about complying with the law and committing a felony because they’ll probably never be caught and prosecuted?

When he “admits some of the mandates may sound absurd at first blush, such as testing wooden toys for phthalates, or testing cotton T-shirts for lead.
“But we’re erring on the side of safety,” he adds, “because this is about lead and other toxic chemicals that are very dangerous to children.” is he implying that there is no reasonableness standard? (e.g. his own company’s website should also be taken down because children may use keyboards containing dangerous levels of lead to access it)?

I received an infuriating reply (a form letter, no doubt) from a Florida representative and will follow up accordingly. I’ll forward the details to you.

It seems that representatives nationwide are sending similar form letter responses, all defending their ‘protection of America’s children.’ If only this were true.

My children were not Made in China, yet our elected officials are making every effort to put that label on their backs.

FI was a blessing to me when I was researching materials and machines for my small domestic manufacturing business. You’re even more important to me now. Thanks to everyone for coming together in support of handmade and domestic production.