http://blog4realestate.com/let-a-moving-new-york-company-handle-your-relocation-woes/
Congress passed the Consumer Products Safetg Improvement Act in August 2008 in response to the discoveryu of high lead content in toys imported from But U.S. businesses contend the law has made it impossiblse for them to sell products that pose no healtyh threatto children. Manufacturers complain the law’s requirements to test and certify children’s products for lead and phthalatesw — and attach permanent trackintglabels — are unreasonable and too costly for many smal businesses.
Supporters of the legislation contend that the has done a poor job of providing guidance to businesses on how to comply with the They also maintain the commission has the authority to excludse certain classes of products fromthe law’xs requirements if they don’f pose a health But Nancy Nord, acting chairwoman of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, testified at a May 14 House hearing that the agency is “hamstrung by the law’s sweeping reach and inflexibility.” The commission has “noyt yet been able to identify any products that would meet the law’zs requirements for exclusions,” she On Jan.
30, the commissionj did issue a one-year stay of enforcementt for the law’s testing and certification requirements. “I t was very clear peoplw were not ready to meet the Nord said. But this stay of enforcement did not relievr manufacturers or retailers of the underlyinb legal liability for selling products that did not meetthe law’xs lower lead and phthalate which went into effect Feb. 10. “According to the retailingb community, the stay changes nothing,” said Davidc McCubbin, a partner in McCubbin Hosiery, an Oklahomza City manufacturer. “Retailers continue to ask us to test.
” Even though there is no evidence thathis company’s hosier y contains lead, his company will be forced to pay more than $500,00o0 on lead testing during the next McCubbin said. Hosiery isn’gt likely to be ingested or inhaled, so lead wouldn’tf pose a health hazard even if it were he added. Textiles should be exempted from the leadtesting requirement, he For Swimways Corp., a Virginia Beach, Va.-based manufacturer of wate r products, the problem isn’t lead, it’a phthalates — compounds often used to softenh vinyl.
The law banned the sale of children’xs products that contained even if the parts containing phthalates are not Because the law made the new phthalatedsstandard retroactive, Swimways was stuck with inventory it couldn’g sell. Retailers returned or destroyed Swimways merchandise and chargeed Swimways forthe expense. The law cost the 70-employes company more than $1 million, said Anthony vice president andgeneral counsel. The law could cost creators of handmade itemstheir businesses, two home-based crafters testified. Laurel Schreiber, ownedr of Lucy’s Pocket in Allison Park, Pa., makesx monogrammed gifts for children, such as and an appliqued bib andbloomer set.
Even though most of the materiald she uses in her products have been tester for leador phthalates, the law would requirw her to test each individual item. This woulc cost her $300 to $1,274 for products that sell for $5 to $20, Schreibe r said. Suzanne Lang, owner of Starbright Baby Teethin g Giraffesin Boalsburg, Pa., created 36 patterns of giraffexs last year. To test each of thess items for lead and phthalates would cost as muchas $81,000, she She grossed only $4,500 last Unless the law is changed, “thousandas of small businesses and crafters will be put out of business in this alreadty tough economic climate,” Lang said. Rep. Jasonh Altmire, D-Pa.
, chairman of the Housde Small Business Committee panel that heldthe hearing, pledge d to work on a solution to the law’s “This is just the first he said. But Altmirw blamed “ineffective leadership” at the Consumerd Product Safety Commissionand “the vaguenesss of important CPSC guidelines” for most of the He hopes new leadershiop and a bigger budget for the agench “will lead to a smoother transition to these new
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