Toymaking Revisited...Your voice DOES count!

[Joe Pack]

Even if you never plan to make a toy to sell, toymakers and crafters need your help. And your voice WILL count, as I am finding out.

You may recall that I posted info on how a new law, as written, will essentially put all craftspeople who make any item that could be used by children 12 and under out of business. Some though this was much ado about nothing, some were outraged and wrote, some were outraged and sat, some said, "Oh, well..." But voices ARE being heard, and, if more speak out, they will be heard even more loudly.

So many craftspeople have spoken up to their Representatives and Senators that they ARE listening. Because of this, two members of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce have written a letter to Representative Henry Waxman, Chair of this committee, urging him to delay implementation of this act so that provisions affecting cottage industries and home craftspeople can be reconsidered. Folks, we DO have a voice in making our laws, but only if we USE it!

Please! Get involved! Even if you do not make things to sell, you can surely see the illogic of a law that says that if you use a piece of wood (already certified safe), a little paint (also certified as being safe) and a coating of shellac (the same material used to coat M&M's), the final product is NOT considered 'safe' until it has been tested by an independent lab at your expense.

Please help your fellow woodworkers. Write a letter to your Senators and Representative urging them to reconsider the well intentioned, but poorly conceived Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act. I will post links to information below, along with the letter I sent to my legislators.

Thanks for reading. Thanks for helping. Speaking up is our right.

http://www.eventlister.com/groups/group_details.php?GroupID=141

[Joe Pack]

Dear Mr. Latta,

I wrote to you some time ago re: provisions of a new law that will effectively shut down my hobby/retirement woodworking business making quality wooden toys and other wooden products, all of which are made with materials that contain absolutely ZERO lead and individually approved for sale to and use by children. The individual components are perfectly safe and legal to buy and sell, but the end result, the heirloom quality wooden toy is illegal to sell without independent testing that would cost into four figures to certify it as being lead free.

Mr. Latta, this is absolutely ludicrous! The intent of the law, the Consumer Safety Product Improvement Act, was laudible...to eliminate the sale of hazardous imports from Asia. This unintended result, however is only laughable...or at least it would be laughable if it did not result in the loss of income for, and criminalization of, literally hundreds of people, including retirees like myself, all over our country.

To make my point more clear, please consider this analogy...You go into a restaurant and order pancakes that have been certified 'safe' to eat by the FDA. After your pancakes arrive, you then order a side of sausage, also certified 'safe' by the FDA. Your sausage arrives and you enjoy your breakfast. A friend then arrives, sees your breakfast and asks the waiter for pancakes and sausage, to which the waiter replies, "Sorry, that combination of food has not been tested and certified as 'safe' by the FDA; it's illegal for us to sell them together unless they are tested together. We could be fined for selling them as a combination, but you can order them individually if you want - that's legal for us to sell."

Foolish analogy? Absolutely. And this is just how this new, well-intentioned but poorly thought out CPSIA affects me. I can sell the shaped wood. I can sell the certified safe paint. I can sell the shellac (the same material used on M&M's and puts the shine on apples). But I can't sell a toy truck without becoming a criminal. This is simply wrong. This is not what you meant to create when you voted "Yea" on this bill. Please, help fix a well-intended, even necessary Act so that the real villains are punished but the innocent are protected.

I have included a link to a website that details the totally logical fixes to this law that, as my father used to say, "...even a blind man could see..." make sense. How can an object made entirely of already certified "safe" materials not be safe in and of itself?

I have also included a link to a letter sent by members of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce to Rep. Henry Waxman, Chair of this Committee.

I sincerely hope you, or, I know, one of your staff members, actually examines this issue and responds saying how you will help. I am not looking for a "politically correct" response that says everything but means nothing. I am looking for help with the unintended consequences of a law that was rushed through Congress without thorough examination. Given time for careful study and input by those affected, and assuming that those writing the law used the "common sense" logic my father and yours used, these consequences would have been avoided. Unfortunately, the former did not happen, nor did the latter.

PLEASE!!! Care enough to examine the effects of this law on retired craftsmen like myself, and the complete illogic of requiring the testing of an end product that is already made with 100% safe materials. If you believe that craftsmen who build toys using 100% certified safe materials should be put out of business because they cannot afford $1000 to test each type of toy they build, then commit yourself to putting them out of business and VOTE that way. If you believe that building a toy with 100% certified safe materials logically dictates that the end product should also be considered safe, then commit yourself to that and VOTE that way. Please just do not send me another letter that says everything and means nothing. I need my Representative's help, not his political prose.

And please commit yourself only after you have a thorough understanding of how the law affects cottage industries and craftsmen, and the VERY simple, logical, safe changes we need to this law in order to keep our supplemental retirement income.

My toys are not dangerous. They are heirlooms...heirlooms safe enough for my grandchildren and yours. Please help me be able to keep making them for kids of all ages to enjoy.

The web site that covers the information I have referred to here is:

http://www.eventlister.com/groups/group_details.php?GroupID=141

To underscore the importance of this issue, please see the letter sent to Rep. Henry Waxman, Chair of the Committee on Energy and Commerce, by Reps. Barton, Ranking Member and Radanovich, Member of the Committee on Energy and Commerce. They are concerned enough with the effects of this Act on the home craftsman to address it directly. While you are in the Senate, not the House, I hope you will care enough to do the same, even if only on an informal basis.

http://978876685067340663-a-1802744773732722657-s-sites.googlegroups.com/site/handmadetoyalliance/document-to-share/1.21.09_CPSIA_Letter_to_Henry_Waxman%5B1%5D.pdf?at tredirects=0&auth=ANoY7comdIZi3vVyuknFSIJsd7bfaAqycIJyUUsKCHISe KzTSxUt25PbPiMoH1eipqweFO80tFBhCpJY2_PtHHMWo0FdLeI pHtspFnqBO7dUO1YXZnACYxcy-lD36jDHfXhgVnakUf6QYNfWtcJVXLoyk3WQvD1u3oyf5ETxS4U Fx5iTQljEsb15N-KQIg7CbS0UjS9GeoACmu0YGQAkKbhtNUlt1yrEdzM3bh2vXGz1 oDDMQKL1M7DIiA38buTk5oAKvcijf-vy_3hPKOxVBQ65kZvFIZcKkg%3D%3D

Respectfully,

Larry J Pack

[Karlan Talkington]

Good luck with this Joe. I will do what I can and pass the word around.
Let's hope some sense can be shared with those that "speak" for us up on the Hill.

[Michael Dromey]

I really enjoy making toys to sell. Has anything changed on this law?

[Frank Hagan]

I really enjoy making toys to sell. Has anything changed on this law?

There have been some delays in enforcement, but the last I heard the CPSC is going to enforce the "letter of the law" once the stay is lifted. The single best repository for news on the law that I have found is at http://overlawyered.com/tag/cpsia/ ... they have been following it from the beginning, and link to several industry trade groups that are upset by the law's reach.

The Handmade Toy Alliance (http://sites.google.com/site/handmadetoyalliance/members-of-the-handmade-toy-alliance) has been speaking out against the law, and has a count-down timer to the lifting of the stay and when full compliance must be made (165 days as of 8/28/09). They have a lot of common sense recommendations on their site about how to modify the law so that it is still effective at keeping lead out of children's toys. Right now, wood is not an exempt material, according to them, so you would have to test each toy. All of the metal you might use, including brass pins for wheel axles, etc. would have to be tested and certified.

[Michael Schwartz]

If this goes into affect I will be forced to turn down commissions, cancel projects that I have had planned and purchased materials for, all during already tough economic times. Thanks for bringing this to attention though as that allows for plenty of time to email representatives.