My Introduction to CPSIA

 January 9, 2009

Hi, have we met before?  I’m Libby.  That’s short for Liberty, but my friends usually call me Libby.  I’m a retired Investigative Reporter.  Now I work part time at a children’s bookstore.  It doesn’t pay much, but I get to be around lots of wonderful books, so it’s a great job.  Besides, Kate, the owner, is a good friend of mine, so I enjoy our time together. 

We had been closed for a couple of weeks over the Christmas holidays.  It was a nice break, but we were excited to reopen.  We miss being around the books and the customers.   At the end of our first week I came back to the bookstore on Friday and Kate seemed out of sorts.  We were busy, so it took me a while to get a chance to speak to her.  She just kept mumbling a set of letters, over and over again.  “CPSIA, CPSIA...”  I couldn’t figure out what a set of letters could mean to get her so upset. 

As the day was winding down, we finally had a chance to chat about it a little. 

“What’s wrong, Kate?”  I asked her.  “You’re not your usual cheery self.”

“I don’t know yet,” she answered, sounding frustrated.  “I’ve still got to do some checking.  Surely this information I’ve gotten can’t be right.”

“What information?” I probed again.  She must have known enough to be so troubled.

“I just haven’t had time to figure it out yet, so I don’t want to jump too quickly.”

“What are we figuring out?” I prodded.  If Kate was having problems, I wanted to be a part of the solution.

“Well, I was reading this article in the Wall Street Journal last night.  It was talking about some new law that Congress had voted on last summer.  It goes into effect in February, and will cause Thrift Stores and Thrift Store customers a lot of problems.” Kate replied exasperatedly. 

“Well, that’s a shame.  That can’t be good for the Thrift Store next door to us, but you seem a little too upset to be just concerned about them,” I tried again.  There was clearly more to this than she was explaining, and the investigative reporter in me was becoming more alert.

Kate responded slowly after that.  “I didn’t think much of it when I read the WSJ article.  It talked of used children’s clothing being a problem, and used toys.   But my kids are getting older, so I figured that didn’t really apply to us.  But when I checked my email two of my friends had forwarded emails to me talking about children’s books being affected by this new law.  That’s when I really started looking into it.”

Now Kate’s aggravation was becoming crystal clear to me.  Most of what she sells are Children’s Books.  Why would Congress care about children’s books all of a sudden?  Weren’t they supposed to be busy trying to solve the world’s energy problems, and trying to end the war in Iraq? 

“So do those letters you’ve been mumbling all day have something to do with this?” I asked. “CSPI, or something.”

“CPSIA,” she corrected.  “Yes, they stand for the law they voted on last summer – Consumer Product Safety ‘Improvement’ Act.” 

“So what kind of law would Congress write that would affect all those things?”  I inquired, still puzzled at why they would care about used clothes, toy, or books.

“That’s what I’m still checking on,” Kate replied.  “I’m going to print the law later today so I can read it when I get home tonight.  But from what I’ve been able to tell, there was a problem in 2007 with toys imported from Asia that were contaminated with lead.  Thousands of toys had to be recalled to keep kids from getting hurt.  I guess some of the activist groups started pressuring Congress after that.  You know, the ‘There ought to be a law’ crowd.”

The problem was starting to make a little more sense to me, but I still didn’t see what that had to do with us.  So I asked again, “But lead laden toys coming from Asia?  Where do we fit in?  Or the Thrift Store next door for that matter?  Didn’t Congress just write a law to ban those toys?  Or to require lead testing of the toys we import from there?”

“One would think!” Kate replied. “I’ll know better after I’ve read the law myself.  But from what I’ve understood so far, they wrote a very broad law to deal with that very particular problem.  I’ve heard that it deals with all children’s products.” 

“All children’s products?”  Wow, that was hard to imagine!  “What age children are they talking about?” I asked out loud, imagining that it would be 5 and younger, or maybe even 6 and younger.  Surely either of those ages would take care of the kids who might be chewing on things.  I remembered investigating some buildings with lead paint one time.  The lead had become an issue when the paint started coming off, and children were chewing on it.  But, as I recalled, it was primarily toddlers that had gotten lead poisoning from the old paint. 

Kate paused before she answered slowly:  “I don’t think you can even imagine the age they chose.  Try 12 and under.  All children’s products being sold for children 12 and under will have to be effectively lead free and phthalate free.[1]” 

I pondered what Kate had just said.  12 and under?  All children’s products?   No wonder she had looked so troubled by all this.  “Kate, when you print a copy of the law for you to read tonight, can you print an extra one for me, too?  It sounds like we both need to study this thing.” 

Kate shrugged here shoulders.  “No problem.   Printing is cheap.  The law is only about 60 pages.  I can print us each a copy.  Let’s start with that, and then when we’re back at the store tomorrow we can talk about where we go from here.  I don’t want to get too upset just because of a couple of emails I’ve read.   Let’s go to the source first.”

We ended the day quietly after that.  We were both thinking about our evening’s reading assignment.

 

 

The Lead Saga Continues – Our Second Day

Saturday, January 10

When Kate and I arrive at the store on Saturday, it is obvious that we have both been prayerfully contemplating our next course of action.  In addition to reading the law, it turns out that we had both gone on the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC)’s website and had started learning our way around there.[2]  (It was a site we would both become way too familiar with in the next month or so.)

Kate had also googled CPSIA to see what she could find on the internet, and I had started writing.  Our first write up on the problem was a full page explanation of the original problem (lead laden toys) and the new problem (a very bad law).  We looked up the phone numbers and fax numbers for our state senators (both of whom had voted for the law) and our local Congressman (who hadn’t been in office when the vote took place, though the Congressman he replaced had also voted for the law).  We put the information in a chart on our handout, to make it easier for our customers to know who to contact, and how to get in touch with them.  Every customer who came through our doors in the near future was about to get a “lead-laden education”.

We made it our mission to tell as many people as possible about the law, encouraging them to write or call or fax their Senators and Congressman.  Most of our customers hadn’t heard of the law, and most were as shocked as we were. 

And yet, for all of that, we felt behind the power curve.  We had just learned about the law – and it was going into effect in one month.   It looked like it was going to be a long and busy month ahead.  

In our early research on the CPSC website, we discovered the first of many “clarifications” they would post there.  On January 8^th they had posted: “Guidance Intended for Resellers of Children’s Products, Thrift and Consignment Stores.”

Kate and I talked about the “clarification” on Saturday.  I asked, “So what did you think of the clarification when you read it?”

Kate answered as I thought she might, “I was trying to figure out what they were clarifying.  I didn’t see anything new in it, did you?”  We were both baffled.

“No,” I agreed, “it said pretty much what we already knew from reading the law.  As resellers or retailers the law isn’t requiring us to test the items we sell for lead.  That’s the job of the manufacturers.”

“But,” Kate continued for me, “even though we don’t have to test products, we can’t sell something that might have lead in it.  And they’re not helping us figure out just how we might know what does and does not have lead.”

We weren’t sure which line aggravated us more from the clarification: “However, resellers cannot sell children’s products that exceed the lead limit and therefore should avoid products that are likely to have lead content…” Or the one that went on to spell out how seriously we should take the law: “Those resellers that do sell products in violation of the new limits could face civil and/or criminal penalties.”  Later, we would call the CPSC hotline and ask them about that.  Did they have a list for us?  Or any suggestions on how we might know what has lead in it?  The answer was fairly simple, “Test it”.   

But from that day forward, we would get emails from well-meaning customers, legal groups, AND our Senators, pointing us to that clarification, as if it was supposed to give us some encouragement, or somehow lessen the effect of the law on us.  We decided that most of them had stopped reading after the sentence, “The new safety law does not require resellers to test children’s products in inventory for compliance with the lead limit before they are sold.”  Funny thing was, we were never worried about testing those items.  We had figured that out from the law we had already read.  But that didn’t deal with whether we could safely/legally sell those items.

Even Snopes[3] had gotten in on the spreading of misinformation from this clarification, declaring that the rumor that used children’s items will have to be tested before they are sold to be false.  (While then doing a bad job of explaining that it will still be very difficult to sell such things without the required testing because of the “not knowing” factor.)

Since the vast majority of what Kate sells in her bookstore is for children 12 and under, we were fairly concerned about the “not-knowing” portion, especially with the law promising fines of up to $100,000 and/or up to 5 years in jail, whether you know it has lead or not. (Wait, doesn’t the Constitution say something about the punishment fitting the crime?  Somehow this didn’t seem in line with that, but then not much about this law was making sense the further we got into it.)

As the day went on, our conversations never strayed far from the “Lead Craziness”, as we had quickly nicknamed it. 

We figured out that used items would be a problem, but they weren’t going to be our only issues.  New items were only going to be slightly less trouble.  For those, not only did they have to be lead free, we also had to have certification from each of our suppliers that they were lead free – certification in hand by February 10.[4] 

I asked Kate about that as the day wore on, “Kate, how many companies do you think you order from at this point?”

She thought about it for a bit, “I think about 16 or so.”

“How many have you received certifications from?”

She didn’t have to think too long about that answer.  “I’ve gotten one. Out of the Box sent me theirs in December, and our Dice Company promised me one soon after I asked for it this weekend.  That’s it.”

“What does that mean as far as the certification requirement of the law?” I asked her, figuring I already knew the answer.

“The law is very clear.  Anything new that we don’t have certificates for on February 10 can’t still be on our shelves.” 

But wait, even with that disturbing news, our troubles weren’t over yet.  The 16 or so companies that we buy products from should all be able to supply us with the certification we would need, hopefully on time.  But there were two other categories of products that were going to be an even bigger problem:  The handmade baby slings we carry for a friend and the children’s products we self-publish.  None of us would be able to afford the testing costs for those products, so in less than one month we were looking at no longer being able to make and sell any of our children’s products (such as Lapbook kits), or the baby slings.[5]

All of a sudden the “lead laden pit” we had just found ourselves in seemed incredibly deep. 

Ouch, this law is getting worse the more we look at it.  And we’ve only been at this for two days. 

We finished our day on that bad news.  We weren’t sure we could handle much more just now.

 

Lead Saga – Our Third Day

Monday, January 12

We had the rest of the weekend to “recover” from our introduction to the Lead Craziness.  But instead, our heads are reeling by time we get back to the store on Monday.  It almost seems that Kate and I can think of nothing else at this point.  We ask ourselves often, “What were they thinking?”  We don’t come up with a good answer. 

It seems that both Kate and I had spent every spare moment over the weekend researching CPSIA.  We keep asking ourselves: “Why have we never heard of this before?”

We may feel behind the power curve one month out, but many others had already started working the issue.  We found a “Fix CPSIA” website, where we each signed our first petition to get this awful law dealt with.  The website is even talking about homemakers and others whose businesses making handmade items will be harmed by this law going in on a lawsuit to fight it.  Kate is pondering that idea, and clearly wants to do everything in her power to fight this, but somehow she isn’t sure the lawsuit is the right way to proceed.[6]

Even the public libraries are already getting riled up about this law.  The American Library Association (ALA) has petitioned Congress to exclude books from the law.  And NARTS (National Association of Resale and Thrift Shops) has dedicated much room on their website to explain CPSIA, and its real affects on Resellers.  (“Yes, Kate, we are not imagining how bad this is!”)

Which is good to hear, because all around we are hearing talk of “It can’t be that bad”…from another self-publisher, from the new family lawyer….all helping us think we’re looking at it too hard…

As Monday ends, we are still in shock over the entire thing, and trying to figure out what to do next.

 

 

 

Lead Saga – Day Four

Tuesday, January 13

Unfortunately, the Saga continues…We keep hoping to wake up one morning and find out this was all a bad dream…But we’re beginning to see, this nightmare is all too real. 

We also continue to fight the misinformation that seems to be everywhere…A homeschool legal group takes a stand – letting homeschoolers know that CPSIA should have no negative effects on the homeschool community.    Wait, say that again?  No, never mind, Kate and I have heard enough. 

It’s quickly clear to us that we will need to keep up with any changes or future “clarifications” that the CPSC puts out.  We sign up on their website to receive email alerts for anything new they post.  (We will be thankful many times in the next month that we have done that.)

We have researched enough.  We realize that it is time to let our customers know.  Kate sends out the first newsletter to the store list, alerting them to what’s going on.  It is entitled: “Will February 10^th be ‘National Bankruptcy Day’?”   We don’t mince any words when telling our customers what we feel about the law:  “While we will probably all agree that children should be kept safe from the risks of lead poisoning, leave it to Congress to take the wrong approach to solving the problem.”

The newsletter continues, “After the issues in December 2007 with some toys imported from China, Congress started working on a piece of legislation to deal with the problem. But the legislation does much, much more than that. It doesn’t just deal with toys, and it doesn’t just deal with imports.  

While the rest of us were watching the primaries, and thinking about the economy last August, Congress passed, and President Bush signed, a bill that deals with ALL products intended for children under 13 (including clothes, furniture, toys, science kits, art materials, and BOOKS).  And not just imports – all new products, from home or abroad. And not just new items – used ones are also included in this law.

We will have to prove (through expensive tests) that these items are lead-free. No tests, no certification. No certification, no sales… Minus a serious shift in the interpretation of the law, the second-hand market of all children's products will be seriously hampered in the United States as of February 10th. Much of what is currently sold used could be considered illegal. Again, we have to prove it’s lead free.

Additionally, handmade and homemade items are also included in this list. Craft fairs look out. Moms making a side-income sewing, beware. The federal government is about to outlaw what you do!  Another market that is threatened is the self-publishing market. At the moment, books are included in the list of children’s products that must be certified. As self-publishers, we don’t even know where to begin to make our books “legal”. It may be easier to just stop producing 
things for that market.”

We ended by encouraging our customers to contact their senators and congressman to let them know how bad this law and its effects will be.  It would be the first of many such newsletters we would send out. 
 

Lead Saga – Day Five

Wednesday, January 14

The all-consuming CPSIA is still with us.  We spend much of the day contacting all of the media folks we can think of:  Talk radio, Fox news, local TV and radio.  Are these folks familiar with this legislation?  Do they realize how bad it is?  Why aren’t they covering it?  It feels like the worst –kept secret around.

 

Lead Saga – Week 2

Thursday, January 15 – Wednesday, January 21

Our second newsletter goes out about CPSIA:  “In preparation for our ‘inventory purge’, we have a great sale going on from now until Saturday, February 7th. New children’s books are 50% off, used children’s books are 25% off, Lapbook kits are 25% off, and numerous other items are 25% or 50% off. Shop early and shop often!
 
We are sad to say that we have discontinued taking consignments until at least February 12th…We are continuing to update our “CPSIA” page as we have new information.  I have added a link to a great Wall Street opinion piece called “Pelosi’s Toy Story” for those who are still having difficulty grasping the severity of this problem.”

We’ve spent six of the last seven days working on CPSIA.  It feels like an eternity.   
 
On Friday, we’re closed, so I finally have the chance to sit down and respond to the homeschool legal group’s letter about “no negative impact on the homeschool community”.  I sit down to write a two page explanation of just how this will affect homeschoolers!  And it will be negative.  I can’t find an email address anywhere on the group’s website, so I just submit it on their feedback form.  Maybe they’ll read it.  But, one way or another, we’re going to tell them! 

Kate and I have also written up a letter for each of our senators and our area’s congressman.  We are going to stop by their local offices and hand deliver them to the staff here in town.  Maybe the “personal touch” will help us get a response back sooner…When we finally find all three offices (an adventure in itself) we are warned that we might not hear back from them right away – Monday is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, and Tuesday is Inauguration Day after all…

On Wednesday I even send a quick email to President Obama congratulating him on his historic election, and asking for his help with CPSIA.  We figure every potential ally is worth trying, and Obama (along with McCain and Clinton) had not voted either way on the CPSIA bill last summer when it was going through the Senate, so we figure it’s worth a shot.  (Later we find his “Stand for the Children” promises – where he promises to take away all lead from children’s products, and we figure he is not going to be much help.

 

 

Lead Saga – Week 3

Thursday, January 22 – Wednesday, January 28