There has been quite a bit of New Year contraversy surrounding regulations under the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) set to go into effect February 10, 2009. Aimed at protecting children from lead-tainted products, the CPSIA, has missed the mark; the damage could be disastrous.
Under the CPSIA, children’s clothes, toys, shoes, and yes, even some WAHM-made cloth diapers, will require lead and phthalate testing by an independent party to be in compliance.
Is CPSC to Help Thrifts & Resale on the CPSIA, an article at TheSmartMama.com, further explains,
“For background, the CPSIA imposes a lead limit on children’s products on February 10 2009. As written, the CPSIA defines all children’s products that do not meet a 600 parts per million (ppm) lead limit as ‘banned hazardous substances’ under the Federal Hazardous Substances Act (FHSA). The FHSA prohibits the distribution in commerce of any banned hazardous substance. The CPSC’s General Counsel has made it very clear that the CPSC believes the law requires all children’s products in the market, including resale, to be obligated to meet the law.”
January 8th, the Office of Information and Public Affairs further clarified how this law will affect resellers, specifically thrift and consignment stores.
“The new law requires that domestic manufacturers and importers certify that children’s products made after February 10 meet all the new safety standards on the lead ban. Sellers of used children’s products, such as thrift stores and consignment stores, are not required to certify that those products meet the new lead limits, phthalates standard or new toy standards.”
But what of products made before February 10th?
“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. However, resellers cannot sell children’s products that exceed the lead limit and therefore should avoid products that are likely to have lead content, unless they have testing or other information to indicate the products being sold have less than the new limit. Those resellers that do sell products in violation of the new limits could face civil and/or criminal penalties.”
Isn’t that just like the government? I translate this to mean they do not have the manpower (a.k.a. ‘PO-lice’) to make sure that all resellers comply with testing, but they want to cover their butt should any child die of lead poisoning from a product purchased from a reseller.
In other words, “Do what you want, but we will take you for everything you have if you sell a product that doesn’t meet the new lead requirements and something happens.”
How will this affect the cloth diaper manufacturing industry?
Well, for the small businesses – and by small business, I mean Work At Home Moms that sew diapers one by one, not large manufacturing facilities – it is the equivalent of stripping their families’ supplemental income. Testing a single small item can cost as much as $400, according to Kathleen McHugh, president of the American Specialty Toy Retailing Association. Imagine what cloth diapers will cost if independent testing of fabrics, thread, snaps and elastic must be enforced. Both the manufacturer, retailer and buyer’s costs will see an exponential increase.
The environmental impact laughs in the face of any supposed ‘GREEN’ efforts on the part of the government. When the maker of that $8.00 cloth diaper can’t afford the $150 test, where will the sustainable option for cloth diapers go?
IN THE LANDFILLS along with the disposable diapers.
Oh my, what do you bet the disposable diaper manufacturers are having a great big group hug right now?
Once again we move away from problem solving (For instance, place restrictions on imports from China!) to applying a government size band-aid. Only after this bit of government idiocy, we will need far more than a band-aid – not even a tourniquet could stop the bleeding-out of our ma and pa shops, small businesses, and anyone else that creates, produces or sells anything child-related.
And if you think the 100% cotton cloth diapers will remain untouched, you’re right. But that’s only if you don’t consider that most cloth diapers aren’t 100% cotton – they are made of other ‘ingredients’ as well.
What about the polyester thread?
How about that elastic?
The snaps, zippers, buttons, Aplix, Velcro.
EXACTLY.
What can you do?
- Speak up.
- Email your representative. Don’t know what to say? Here’s a sample letter.
- Call your senators.
- Send a letter to the Consumer Product Safety Commission.
- Sign this petition.
- Tell everyone.
Bryana is the owner of 
Becca is a part-time Spanish Teacher and part-time Stay-At-Home-Mom. She's a cloth diaper expert who enjoys spending time with her family, crafting and selling her wares in her very own
Julie is a mom to three kids including a set of identical twins. Through cloth diapering her twins she developed a passion for the industry and is an avid cloth diaper advocate. You can also find her on her blog
there are disposable options that are ecologically friendly. like Nature Babycare for example.
plus, the benefits of cloth diapers are often overstated due to the energy and water used to clean them.
Diaperdandy – I know that there is research to that end, but unfortunately, the research is not complete and is funded/supported by the disposable diaper industry.
But of course, that’s not what this particular article is about.
Diaperdandy – I too wanted to ask, have you, or anyone you’ve known, given cloth a try? Our family’s energy (gas in our case) and water consumption has NOT increased due to our cloth, and we pretty much have to wash each night or at most go two nights. I’m active in a cloth diaper community and this question has been posed many times and the majority consensus is that energy costs did NOT increase for most families…so, try reasearching both sides (I did and found the same thing as the poster above, btw…) and find out for yourself! But I too digress from the subject at hand, Sorry!
As for this law…ugh, what can we say but – nice try, no cigar! (Is that even PC anymore? hehe) While I applaud the effort to stop the influx of harmful toys and products, they certainly did not do all of their homework. And a larger issue is that for those of us who have made contact with our legislators, majority of them don’t seem to understand the problems we WAHM’s face. Basically, I’ve been told that “sorry, you’ll have to test, we must keep our kids safe, you know…” even though my $1 (if that) priced wipe will cost me no less than $150 to test. Who wants to buy a $151 wipe from me? Please? ;)
But as a side note: On the Change.org website, this issue was voted as one of the top that will be tackled by the new administration as soon as they take office…we’ll see!!! I’ll cross my fingers, for sure…
Excuse me…but has any of you actually read the document? There is NOTHING in it about lead testing CLOTH. The lead testing is the PAINT and PLASTIC. Are your diapers painted? Please read over the CPSIA yourself…don’t take anyone else’s word for it.
Here is the actual form…not someone’s interpritation, not someone’s shorten version. Please read it.
http://www.cpsc.gov/cpsia.pdf
Duane Coyle – Yes, actually.
Cloth diapers are not just cloth anymore – they contain ELASTICS, PUL, LAMINATES for waterproofing, SNAPS, Velcro, Aplix, etc…
so yes, it does pertain to ‘some’ cloth diapers.
I think you will enjoy reading this!
Dr. Seuss Meets the CPSIA –
http://www.easyfunschool.com/the_CPSIA_meets_Dr_Seuss.html
Dyed or undyed textiles (cotton, wool, hemp, nylon, etc.), including children’s fabric products, such as baby blankets, and non-metallic thread and trim. This does not include products that have rhinestones or other ornaments that may contain lead or that have fasteners with possible lead content (such as buttons, metal snaps, zippers or grommets).
This is one of the exemptions/exclusions to the testing of lead until the new law is completely figured out. So in the mean time testing does need to be done on the fabric. This has come right out of the CPSA gov. website. The only fasteners with possible lead I think would be snaps. I think people are getting there diapers in a bunch over a minor glitch to the cloth diapering industry. What do you think? Not sure how this affects the testing of phthalates though.
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