Mom And Pop Toymakers Fear New Testing Regulations

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Mom And Pop Toymakers Fear New Testing Regulations

December 23, 2008 by Angela Shupe | 0 Comments

Media General:

Mom and pop makers of toys and other products for children fear that costly new government regulations could put them out of business soon after Christmas.

After recalls of millions of tainted toys from China over the last two years, Congress approved a new law this summer limiting the amount of lead and other chemicals in children’s products.

The Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act mandated that, beginning in February, toys, clothes and other products for kids must be tested for those chemicals. The new law covers both products imported by large toy companies and many of those made by craftsmen working from home in the United States.

Pam Crowson, a stay-at-home mother of four in Pilot Mountain, N.C., started hand-making hair bows and other products for kids a year ago. She sells them on eBay and Etsy, an online marketplace for handmade products, and makes enough each week to help pay for groceries.

While large companies can afford to test materials when making tens of thousands of copies of each product, she said that she makes so few of each item that third-party testing of her fabric – at a few hundred to a few thousand dollars per sample – would be cost prohibitive for her small operation.

“I’m all for lead free toys, but it was the toys coming from China that had lead in them. I really feel the law was intended for them,” she said. “But if the law’s not changed, people like me will have to stop.”