At least that's the headline on a recent 10Connects.com story. After reports of lead-poisoning via children's toys, the federal Consumer Product Safety Commission has passed a stricter standard for lead in clothes and toys. But consignment shop owners worry about the effect of the law on them.
From the story:
The Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) passed back in August to change the lead standard for all children's products, from clothes to toys. The idea is to get every single product virtually lead-free with a maximum of 600 ppm (parts per million).
This means any products made prior to the new law will have to be pulled from store shelves and that's why consignment and thrift stores are in such trouble….
What's worse, the government is going to enforce the new law with serious consequences from fines to felonies.
The best part of this article is a quote by a New Port Richey consignment store owner:
"The price that we are going to pay is going to be equally as great as lead-poisoning," said Vaporis.
Uh, no. Sorry, lady, but the sales you are going to lose are nothing compared to some poor kid getting lead poisoning — unless, of course, you're giving all your profits to some leper orphanage in India. In that case, we might need a second opinion from The Ethicist.
This article appears in Dec 17-23, 2008.