shocked at the best intentions.......

 Serious stuff today.

Riding the wave of panic after the discovery of lead in some toys made in china last year,a new law was passed in the US.It is aimed at products for children aged twelve and under.Stage one takes effect from February 10th.The fallout of this new law will be devastating.

Please take a moment to read the link supplied.There are many others out there but Sarah-Jane puts it very simply with some good links.Bloggers and Etsy sellers are doing their best to inform all of us about this.There are 1000 Etsy sellers who have listed their products at the price incurred after applying these new tests.Have a look here.

It effects those of us outside the US as-well.As an independent toy maker,I will not be able to sell my products there.As a mother and shopper I will not be able to afford items I see in American online stores or in American magazines(due to the huge testing costs involved and subsequent price increases) aimed at children in this age group.Some products will disappear because of these enormous costs.We will not be able to buy beautiful handmade treasures from Etsy for our children( I think that,because Etsy is an American handmade market place,childrens products listed on their site would be subject to the new tests no matter where you are based or who you are selling to).There are so many ways that this law effects us all.

It is quite alarming to learn that there appears to be no intention of adjusting and clarifying the law at this stage.

I have also discovered today that Domino and Wondertime magazines have ceased publication.Very sad indeed.

xx

Comments

[rose]

wow. We certainly need to protect our children against dangers like those created by those toys from china, but this sounds like knee-jerk legislation by people who never have to deal with the real stuff. great post by sarah-jane (and you, lulu) - text-book model on how to get things changed when the laws have gone wrong. Good luck with it all: hopefully there are pollies in the Obama administration who will understand the issue. It will be terrible if you can't all (that's bloggers in the States and outside) go on distributing your beautiful work in the US (and even more scary, if other countries make mirror laws. xx rose
ps that poster is so confronting but brilliant!

[melissa]

Isn't this the most ridiculous thing you have ever heard? Especially coming at a time like this with everyone struggling to hold onto jobs and their business or homes! I have signed petitions and written letters- I guess all we can do now is hope someone will come to their senses. Can you believe you wouldn't be able to sell a used children's book? How crazy is that? I guess I better hurry and have a yard sale because we have bunches of toys and books the kids have outgrown. Will we have to just throw all these perfectly fine things in the garbage? How crazy is that when people are finally beginning to catch onto recycling. I will probably be fined or imprisoned for giving used toys, clothes and books away for free. Haha- watch for me in the news! So sad.