Will CPSIA Hurt Small Businesses?
Feb
02
I learned about the CPSIA law that is set to take effect on February 10th, 2009 from my friend Emily’s blog. This new law will ban led from children’s clothing and toys. This does sound like a way to help keep our children safe but after reading about it the law sounds confusing and has a lot of gray areas that could be open to a variety of interpretations.
One of the biggest worries that people have is that the law will harm work at home moms who make and sell childrens clothing and toys as well as thrift stores as they will need to conduct expensive testing on each product. One small business owner who commented in this LA times article says that it would cost her $50,000 to have a private lab test her products so she is liquidating her line of clothing and closing her business. Section 102 of the CPSIA law states that a 3rd party must do the testing which makes it very expensive.
This law will probably do a little good for the safety of children and a lot of harm to the economy. The last thing you want to happen in this economic slowdown is for the cost of children’s products to increase dramatically and to take away a small business opportunity of millions of Americans.
I am more of a libertarian mindset, if a parent is concerned about lead in their home they can buy an inexpensive lead testing kit for less than $10.
February 2nd, 2009 at 1:53 pm
Hmmm…that’s a tough one. I understand the concern with lead in products for children, but you don’t want to run business out too.
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February 4th, 2009 at 9:25 am
That is how you lose your liberty. It is always for a “good cause” the next thing you know you are in Hitler’s Germany or Stalin’s USSR.
Read Frederich Von Hayek!
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February 5th, 2009 at 3:58 pm
This wouldn’t be such a bad idea if they didn’t require such expensive testing. Also most if not all lead products are coming from foreign countries, they are not being made in the US.
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