Thoughts and Opinions

The Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act will propose a slight challenge for me, as well as many other small business owners. "This Act, which will go into effect on February 10th, 2009, puts forth much more stringent safety measures for products intended for children under the age of 12.

Under the very important auspices of child safety, the Act may have grave unintended consequences: fewer choices for families who are looking for handcrafted alternatives. Many Etsy artists and craftspeople have expressed fears that they won't be able stay in business due to the burdensome cost of testing and certification pursuant to the proposed legislation." (From an open letter from Etsy to all sellers.)

As a mother, I think it's wonderful that toys are being tested. Hopefully I'll have to do less research on each toy that comes into my home (I can't tell you how many times my son has been given a gift that is full of lead.) As a Etsy seller, it kind of sucks. I love to make toys for my child, and sometimes a toy is something that other people want to buy. Unfortunately, unless I sell them illegally (I won't) I can't market any toys for children 12 and under. Unless I pay around $4,000 per toy for testing (I found this on another website--I'm not sure if the figure is correct, but whatever, you get the point.) I don't know what could be done about this, as it's going into effect pretty soon, but I do know that it puts a damper on what I do. Ugh.

Who else is affected by this? As a parent, how do you feel? As a seller? Anyone else have an opinion? I'm interested to know people's thoughts on this...