Green Options

Mattel. The name is no longer only synonymous with Barbie, Hot Wheels, and Polly Pocket. Now when you hear “Mattel”, it’s flashback time: to lead-laden, choketastic toys.

When the Consumer Products Safety Commission was charged with implementing the new CPSIA, designed to make toys safer, fans of handcrafted goods worried: would we still be able to get our beloved natural toys? After all, toy testing for lead and phthalates has a price tag attached that is harder on the small business owner than it is on corporate giants like Mattel.

Turns out, it’s especially easy for Mattel, as the toy manufacturer gets to use “independent” in-house testing instead of submitting its toys to third-party testing like everyone else, as the AP reports,

The Consumer Product Safety Commission recently, and quietly, granted Mattel’s request to use its own labs for testing.

Although I’d love to not be too cynical on this, guess what? Coincidentally, Mattel spent $1 million last year in lobbying costs.

Waaaaaaaay back in December, you might remember I wrote my representatives a letter about the CPSIA of 2008. As a small crafter of children’s items and a consumer of handmade goods for myself and my children, I was extremely worried about the stringent testing requirements called for in the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act. Specifically, I envisioned a future in which only a few huge manufacturers (the same ones, perhaps, whose outsourcing caused the lead scandals in the first place?) could afford to put children’s items on the market, and in which thrift stores and libraries were cleared out of children’s items entirely. Considering I only buy handmade or second-hand, that’s a problem for me.

Oh Plah! is French for “Here you go!”.  This nifty bracelet is a colorful addition for a fashion forward Mama and does double duty as a toy to entertain a fussy baby.  Oh Plah! is free of lead, PVC, BPA, and phthalates.

My kids were always wanting to play with whatever was attached to my body and sometimes we ran out of the house without stashing a toy or two in the bag, so wearing a safe toy would have been a great help in our world.

There are no small or movable parts on this bracelet… it is one piece of durable, flexible material.  The bands are designed to stand up to lots of bending and chomping.  It can be cleaned up simply by washing in warm, soapy water.  In addition to being free of nasty chemicals, this bracelet meets or exceeds all CPSIA regulations and it is made in the U.S.A.

While checking out my blog list waiting for the coffee to brew, I found the following post on Whip Up–Rosar Pomar + Oilily: Blatant Ripoff?

Basically, a new product line from big company Oilily looks suspiciously similar, from fabric to shape to the smallest facial features, to an old product line that independent small crafter Rosa Pomar has been lovingly producing on her own for years.

The photo to the left is from the Oilily Summer of Love baby girl layette. The doll shown here is shockingly identical to the beautiful dolls that Pomar has been creating for years–see here for examples of her dolls from 2007.

The dust has settled down for just a little while, but you might remember that I did my best to do my part by writing letters to my representatives protesting the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA). Senator Lugar replied quite a while ago, and I haven’t heard a peep out of Senator Bayh, but at long last, I have received my reply from Representative Baron Hill. Here it is:

February 25, 2009 

Dear Mrs. Finn, [I specifically signed my name as “Ms.”–harumph)

Yet another victory and more good news for toy safety happened to day, with a judge ruling that toys and baby products with pthalates must be removed from the shelves.

“Today’s victory gives parents the certainty Congress tried to provide in the first place – that their children are safe from harmful chemicals in their toys,” said Aaron Colangelo, NRDC attorney. “This is a big win for children’s health and consumer safety.”

The NRDC filed a lawsuit against the CPSC in December after a loophole had been proposed to allow companies to continue selling pthalate-laden products so long as they were made prior to the ban date.

To quote Dora - “WE DID IT!”

The CPSC has granted a one year stay for the CPSIA mandatory testing requirements that were going to make February 10, 2009 Bankrupt Day for probably hundreds of thousands of businesses in the United States, as well as forcing many European distributors out of the country.

We are honored to be featured on ZapRoot for discussing the Consumer Product Saftey Information Act (CPSIA); however, we have new information to share.  Today, members of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce submitted a letter to chair Henry Waxman requesting a hearing to explore how CPSIA will affect small business, according to Z Recommends.

If you’ve got a spare minute, please hop over to Change.org and vote for the Handmade Toy Alliance’s proposal “Save Small Businesses from the CPSIA.” The top 10 ideas will be presented to the Obama Administration, and considering how many people this act effects, we need all the help we can get.

Simply place your vote digg style, and consider spreading the word with links on your [...]

From gently used clothing to handmade toys, we’ve raised our concerns about how the new Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) will negatively affect green families and businesses.

This law designed to protect our children is so poorly written, it will actually benefit big business and harm resale shops and natural toymakers.  As Stephen Lamar, executive vice president of the American Apparel and Footwear Association explained to the Redding Record Searchlight, “The law introduces an extraordinarily large number of testing requirements for products for which everyone knows there’s no lead.“  An exemption has been proposed for clothing and toys made from natural materials such as wood and wool, but what about library books? Yes, LIBRARY BOOKS!

Taking effect on February 10, 2009, the CPSIA will require all products for children under 12 be tested for lead, including books.  That means in order for a library to admit children under 12, they must test all of their children’s books or ban children from the library.

So you may remember that a few weeks ago I looked up my representatives and wrote a letter each to Senator Richard G. Lugar, Senator Evan Bayh, and Representative Baron P. Hill about the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 (CPSIA for short).

On Wednesday, Senator Lugar wrote me back. Here is his reply:

Dear Ms. Finn,

Thank you for sharing with me your concerns about legislation that was recently enacted to modernize the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC).  I appreciate knowing of the difficulties individuals such as yourself and other small toymakers expect to face in complying with this new law.