Research Paper Help

[Former_Member]

I am writing a research paper on CPSIA and the effects on handmade sellers/artisans. I fortunately have not experienced anything in regards to CPSIA, but would love any input from my fellow Etsians.

Today I'm working on a thesis statement.

Thanks :)

[Former_Member]

The law has caused GREAT stress on us. First trying to understand exactly what is required, then figuring out how to comply, and finally re-working labels to get all the correct information on them.

We have re-worked designs to avoid buttons, zippers, simple embellishments all due to the testing requirements.

Many crafters have either switched to making non-children products or GONE OUT OF BUSINESS!

Read the postings in the CPSIA forums -- you will see the crafters struggle to figure it out and comply.

[Former_Member]

Like so many hysterical reactions to a specific situation, Congress has managed to throw the baby out with the bath water. As far as I can tell, the people most affected by this ridiculous piece of cr....legislation...are those least likely to violate the spirit of it, while the major players get off scot free. You'll notice that the manufacturers are still using lead, cadmium, whatever is the toxin of the month, while putting the burden on the importer and the individual crafter in this country. I guess they're still busy trying to drain the swamp. I think it's a miracle anyone of my generation managed to grow up.....we didn't have seatbelts, our teddy bears had button eyes, and we drank out of the hose! I'm not saying that some safety regulation isn't called for, but this bill is the equivalent of using an AK47 to kill flies, and it's aimed at the wrong target.

[Former_Member]

So far this is the thesis statement I have come up with. Any thoughts would be appreciated...


The Consumer Product Safety Information Act of 2008, intended to create safety standards and testing requirements in children's products, has negatively impacted small businesses in the handmade industry.

[SteamPatchCompany]

Looks like a good start for a thesis.

I am one of the people who now avoids making children's products entirely, even though I have made and successfully sold children's products in the past. It's just not worth the hassle to me, and I feel like it limits mt ability to be creative, choose my materials according to what inspiration dictates.... It sure takes the spontaneity out of creating children's items, and I'm not interested in jumping through all of the hoops I would have to in order to comply.

[Former_Member]

The regulations are a major problem for small batch and handmade toy makers. Things like, even if the manufacturer has their paint tested and has documentation that it is lead free and you make a product with it you still have to have the product tested for lead. Just silly all inclusive little rules which were meant to make sure the big companies that originally caused the problems can't wiggle out of testing, but really just make is so that I'm afraid to use any paint or dyes on my wood toys.

Once the ASTM testing becomes mandatory in February of next year, I may have to re-reevaluate how feasible it is to keep making toys.

The Handmade Toy Alliance is a great resource if you haven't checked them out yet.

[knitwit4ever]

What LILGIRLCA said...

We've had more than 2 years of scrambling to try to comply with regulations that were evolving even as implementation dates arrived and passed, making it impossible to know what might be legal to sell at any future date or how it should be marked.

While the confusion has lessened somewhat, the problems for small-batch and one-of-a-kind artisans continue: many supplies need not tested by manufacturers as they are not specifically for children, leaving us with the choice of expensive, digestive testing (Digest a one-of-a-kind item? Nothing left to sell!), not using products that aren't on the lead-testing exempt list and not making products requiring other types of testing, or abandoning manufacture of items for kids 12 and under.

The intent of the law was wonderful but much was lost in the implementation!

Suggestion: Ask a random sample of shoppers in a toy or kidswear department about the law. And go to a local craft show and ask a selection of vendors about it. My guess is you'll find many responses similar to: "The WHAT law?" It appears that many crafters and buyers are completely oblivious to its provisions and impact, leaving many products untouched by the safeguards it supposedly has generated.

[bobbinalong]

I don't believe your statement is quite correct. Let me explain. Supposing I went with a mom and her child to a craft store, such as Jo Ann's, and she purchased fabric and supplies (buttons, zipper, thread, trim) to make her child an outfit. They cut her fabric. I am standing right next to her at the cutting table. I purchase fabric from the same bolt to make a ragdoll to sell. She goes home, creates the item, the kid loves it, and all is well. If I go home and create my ragdoll, I now fall under the CPSIA and dance through hoops. Her CHILD is no safer. It is just that the parent is ignorant of this law. It is the items that are continuing to be sold where the problem lies in my thinking. I could be a grandmother and make a grandchild an outfit. If I don't know the law, I could have dangerous fabric, harmful buttons on it. Go into a fabric store and start reading labels and contents. Look at items for kids.

This law has also affected charities. And put limits on thrift stores. Go way back - as far as you can - through old Forum threads. Start way back and come forward. Spend time researching this. Etsy shops making kids items fought hard to keep this law reasonable. We did TV interviews, we wrote letters. Dig into this. So many great shops went out of business or have switched to other items. I am one of those.

The part that really breaks my heart is that all through history, mothers and grandmothers, dads have created kids' toys. Ragdolls, teddy bears, all kinds of things - way back through history. Over the last years and going forward, a lot of this history will vanish, because we can't create what we want to. How long will it be before ALL artists are restricted under this law? They will be required to test everything.

Look into children's books, school items, games. They fall under this law also. Again, read the CPSIA. Study it.

The CPSIA has been difficult to understand and the CPSC is constantly changing it. That in itself has been a tough one to swallow. They have it planned to include new dangers as time goes along.

[bobbinalong]

Please understand that we are all so passionate because we care about kids. We love them to pieces and don't want to see them harmed. But in these times, when the country is hurting financially, it makes no sense to lose the freedom to donate a toy to a kid. Or to give a sick child a teddy to hug, or a book to kids who could use them. Or to parents who need to have a way to make extra income through their talents to create toys. Or to retired folks (me) who need a little extra. We all love kids, we want the best for them, and will do our best to protect them. But the CPSC is pushing penalties on us where there should be none. So many Etsy sellers worked so hard, so very hard, to make this law understandable and reasonable. Where do we go from here? I want to make ragdolls. But I couldn't afford fines if there should be some. I definitely can't afford the testing.

[Former_Member]

It's absolutely crazy.

[FayeMaloneDesigns]

I happened to be looking at pattern books yesterday in JoAnn's. Children's patterns are loaded with zippers, buttons, other ornamentation that would all have to be tested. Page after page of pajamas out of flannel. What child doesn't want a cozy set of flannel pajamas for Christmas?

As a mom, I can make all these things for my child, as recommended by Simplicity, vogue, Butterick and others, but If I make the same outfit and sell it or donate it, I am making something illegal. Where is the sanity in this?

Show me in the recalls where a plastic button, an ordinary clothing zipper, a snap or hook and eye has caused a Lead injury to a child!! But Henry Waxman has declared all of these ordinary things to be put on a hazardous list that must require testing for lead, lead in paint or phthaltes. But, not until I have intent to use them in manufacturing a child's garment. Up until that moment in time they are considered safe. What miracle occurs when I sew them into a garment that morphs them into hazards?

Oh, the insanity of it all. Is there any coincidence that this law was signed in the late summer of 1998? Could any of this fiasco have affected a downturn in businesses that manufacture or sell children's products?
Ya Betcha!!!!! The only hope we have is that a new leadership chair will take over the commerce committee. and all the subcommittees. As soon as we find out who they may be, we can proceed again with trying to make changes.

[Former_Member]

"Oh, the insanity of it all. Is there any coincidence that this law was signed in the late summer of 1998? Could any of this fiasco have affected a downturn in businesses that manufacture or sell children's products?
Ya Betcha!!!!! The only hope we have is that a new leadership chair will take over the commerce committee. and all the subcommittees. As soon as we find out who they may be, we can proceed again with trying to make changes."
______________________________________________________

Thank you. You come to the point very handily. I'm wondering how it is that Congress can make laws and raise taxes that drive businesses and jobs offshore, then they can turn to us with big eyes and say, gee...how did THAT happen??? Must be greedy owners (bankers, auto manufacturers, whatever). Meanwhile, they made their investments and will cash in no matter what. Check on those ethics hearings next year.

This issue has some other interesting aspects to it, however. Most people don't own multi-million dollar companies, banks or auto factories. Those guys get bailed out with OUR money. Millions of people, however, DO make things (on a comparatively smaller scale than, say, anyone selling to a big box store), either for personal use or for making a little money by using their skills and creativity. So....who gets the bigger penalty? It makes no sense to me that an individual such as the Etsy seller who actually MAKES what they sell is held to an impossibly strict standard, while the manufacturer in a foreign country can pack his product with toxic chemicals and dangerous parts and pay no penalty at all! They don't pay the fines, they don't take the merchandise back, and no one in our government apparently wants to tell them they can't sell this junk anymore. I guess I should be glad I don't own a home where a contractor used the drywall contaminated with formaldehyde....the owner loses the home that isn't paid for, the contractor goes belly up, they have to split the cost of dismantling the home and decontaminating the site. You notice there is no mention of restitution or crippling fines to the country that caused it. My last representative didn't give a flying flip...maybe the one we dumped her for will.

[Former_Member]

ChandiDesigns says:
So far this is the thesis statement I have come up with. Any thoughts would be appreciated...


The Consumer Product Safety Information Act of 2008, intended to create safety standards and testing requirements in children's products, has negatively impacted small businesses in the handmade industry.
...............


Disclaimer for your research- I don't have an Etsy shop yet.
I work for a small, maybe medium-sized company that sells a few children's products amongst other things. Our products are designed in the U.S. and made in Asia. So I might have a different take on CPSIA than most people here, but I will heartily agree that it's a pain in the butt!

But it's not really accurate to say that it was intended to create safety standards and testing requirements in children's products.

It does tighten the previous federal limits on lead and phthalates, but the biggest change CPSIA brought is in requiring documentation and certification of things that largely should've already been taking place, and allowing for penalization when that isn't done. (Rather than allowing for penalties only after a significant amount of harm has been caused.)

There were plenty of standards already in place before CPSIA, most are mandatory, some are "suggestions":
CPSC, ASTM and FDA standards listed in the CFR already outlined procedures testing for lead, phthalates & other harmful substances, flammability, choking and strangulation hazards, sharp points, use and abuse, fiber content and care labeling, food-safe surfaces if applicable... (things I'd be happier if I didn't need to know about as a designer...) some of which apply to ages 13+ product as well.

But the introduction of the CPSIA seems to have been a Great Awakening amongst a lot of small business people that such things even exist, and/or apply to them, which is a really interesting phenomenon. Credit the blog-o-sphere, I guess. I don't know how widespread that really is, or if most crafters are still blissfully ignorant of it! :-)

[Former_Member]

Thank you so much for all the input. It is a great help. I truly appreciate your thoughts for my simple 2500 word research paper. I'm actually surprised that I was assigned to create the thesis statement prior to doing any of the research, so I'm sure there will be some adjustments.

I am a Apparel, Textiles and Merchandising student. So I know this has had a huge effect throughout the manufacturing world too. Since I am also an Etsy seller where it is a huge topic, I decided to dig in a learn more about it.

Fortunately there has been no direct effect on my business. But my heart truly goes out to those who have struggled or been forced out of business.

Thanks again and many blessings.

[Former_Member]

Be sure you mention in that paper that one constant factor in bad law is that politicians, no matter which side of the aisle they sit on, simply never learn about the Law of Unintended Consequences. I think something happens to even the best of them, once they get to D.C. They begin to think of a zero or two as not mattering, and they fail to see that using an Uzi to swat flies is counterproductive....not only do they miss the fly, they destroy the thing that attracted it.

[bobbinalong]

ChandiDesigns, I hope you will do your very best on your project. Some of us have "grown up" with this Act as it has developed over the past several years. I had done a TV interview on my local NBC station a couple of years ago. The TV channel hooked me up with my rep in Congress, who, in turn, assigned an assistant to work with me. He had a connection to the CPSC and could get answers for all of us Etsy sellers. When we started this thing, Etsy sellers couldn't get a good reading of this law. It was one way today, and another way tomorrow. Nothing was defined or clear. Constant change. But I remember this "Assistant" talking to me on the phone and sayig what if a child sucked on the arm of my ragdoll. That image has stuck with me - it won't go away. I certainly don't want a kid hurt. None of us want to see a kid hurt. But the same cotton fabric is still being sold at Jo Ann's to anyone who wants to buy it. And when you look at parts of this Act, you will see that about every three months or so they pick up on another substance. So much of what the CPSC outlaws is stuff that is in the marketplace first and they are following up to a consumer's complaint.

With jobs so scarce and times so economically bad, I think we will see trade with so many other countries. What about all of those products imported here?

ChandiDesigns, I hope we haven't scared you. I'm 73. My 4 kids are all grown, my 3 grandkids are almost grown. Two are, one is only 10. She has "experienced" this with me. She did the TV interview with me. I just want to make ragdolls to share with kids. But you are young. These "safety issues" are going to fall on your generation. It is a tough one. How do you decide what is and isn't harmful for kids. After awhile, you begin to withdraw from most everything. Or, you use care and tackle the world. Take the challenge on. In the meantime, all the Jo Ann's of the world continue to fill the marketplace with whatever.

Good luck on your project.

[Former_Member]

The CPSIA has a million rules and regulations, few of which I understand.
These rules ae supposed to protect kids from danger.
When I was little, we playe with sticks and old refrigerator boxes. No one I knew lost an eye, no one choked to death.
I mean, sheesh, kids can choke on hot dogs.. which are food (sorta LOL). Food belongs in your mouth. Small toys do not...
It seems like yet another excuse; shift the blame to manufactureres rather than blaming a parent who gives the kid a toy they can choke on.
I see signs on toys "Choking Hazard, Not Intended for Children Under 3", and ask myself- "Couldn't a 4 year old choke just as easily as a 3 year old?"

[Former_Member]

wow, I had no idea that this law existed. I don't make children's stuff, but this all is good to know just to know. It seems to be yet another way for the government to support big business and knock down the individual artist, which is really sad.