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Feb 10, 2009 -- Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act goes into effect
The Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) went into effect today and requires testing of children's toys and clothing for dangerous amounts of lead and phthalates.
The Wal-Marts, Targets, Costcos and Toys R' Uses of the world are the intended targets of the new legislation.
But there is still widespread confusion about the law. As recently as 4 days ago, the Consumer Product Safety Commission -- the enforcers of the CPSIA -- had said that retailers would only be penalized if they knowingly sold goods in violation of the law.
Complicating the issue is a district court judge who ruled that all untested children's toys and clothes made before Feb. 10 must be removed from shelves. This has confused retailers who don't know what's safe and what's not to sell.
Then there's the question of whether small businesses that make handcrafts will be shutdown because of the CPSIA. Once again, Clark wants to emphasize that the CPSIA was not written with small business in mind. There is a zero percent chance that you'll be put out of business, according to the penny-pincher.
Unfortunately, Clark won't be able to answer any questions submitted via commenting. If you have a question, please try posting it to our message boards.
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What others are saying
This law is downright awful
I have a hard time thinking Clark is right on this one. This law has caused nothing but confusion and chaos for my small business. The CPSC cannot regulate this law, nor can lawmakers get it right. The retroactivity towards inventory passed by the federal judge should be put in jail himself. We are taking a huge hit this week, one in which it will hard to recover from in the future. Congratulations to our federal government again, Feb. 10th should be known as bankrupt america day.
One ring to rule them all
This reminds me of an incident during the '90s in the aftermath of hurricane Andrew. A contractor was hired to clear away damaged homes and he had a man on a bulldozer gathering piles of rubble. A car pulled up at the work site and two men got out and watched the work for a few minutes. The men then arrested everyone and charged them with federal crimes, felonies in this instance, for discharging Freon into the air!
They were in violation of a federal law that prohibits intentional discharge of freon (from air conditioners) and these pecksniffs threw the book at the hapless construction workers even though many of them had never even heard of the law. Never mind the fact that the hurricane had already "discharged" thousands of times more Freon than their clearing work, it didn't matter one bit to the federal prosecutor. He sent the contractor to prison.
A Law Is A Law Is A Law . . .
Clark, if this law were written as you have describe it to be with your interpretation, there would not be confusion. I don't know why you think that volume of sales, the size of a company or the nature of sales (resellers), exempts anybody from this legislation. This is just another example of big government although maybe trying to help ends up causing a trememdous amount of harm, misunderstanding and maybe even lawsuits. Where in the law does it say handcrafts are exempt or second hand stores - nonprofit or for profit.
CPSIA
The CPSIA is way too broad and does not accomplish the original intention: to protect our children from lead products made in other countries. Additionally this act restricts economic growth in the U.S. Another blunder by our lawmakers.
