Businesses like Tailored Tadpole in danger. Please read...

This comes from Elizabeth Barnes, of Hoobaleedoos. Please take a moment and read through it. You can vote from January 5th-15th on change.org

Elizabeth writes: "I just wanted to make you aware of some new legislation called the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act. It is already a law but goes into effect Feb. 10 2009 and was created because of the increase of items with lead coming into the country from China. In essence, this law requires that items for children under age 12 be submitted for lead and phthalate testing. Testing is extremely expensive ($100-$1000/item) and destroys the product being tested. Any items that are not tested as of Feb 10 2009 will be considered "hazardous" by the CSPC and will have to be destroyed. If a manufacturer is caught selling with out a certificate of testing, they can face around $100,000 in fines per item that was sold. While in theory a good law, the details are horrendous.

This legislation will KILL handmade baby and kids items. Under this legislation, each one of a kind item will have to be tested. Since all my items are one of a kind and special, they would each have to be subjected to expensive testing and then destroyed making it impossible for me to continue with Hoobaleedoos. This legislation, that was designed because of problems with imports from China, will leave consumers with no choice but to purchase import items from China. Huge manufacturers will be the ONLY ones that can afford this testing. This will eliminate the wonderful, unique and already safe goods that handmade offers.

This legislation will not only impact me as a manufacturer. This legislation will increase the costs of baby/kids goods that are already purchased by consumers. Large manufacturers will have to increase their costs due to the costs of testing. Many people in our country are hurting financially already and this will only increase their financial problems. The CSPIA will, also, impact charity donations. Items without certification of testing will not be allowed to be donated to ANY organization. This eliminates things like grannies donating knit caps to NICU units and donations of toys and clothes to the Salvation Army! After Feb 10 2009, I couldn't even donate my items to any charity organization. The CPSIA will, also, impact you! Any baby/kids items will have to be pulled from your shelves as of Feb 10th 2009, which has become known as NATIONAL BANKRUPTCY DAY. I don't know how much of your stock is for kids under age 12, but many small brick and mortar stores will have to close because they do so much business in baby/kids items.

I cannot emphasize enough how this legislation will negatively impact all of us and the need to fight for amendments to it.

If you would like to help fight the CSPIA as it is written now, please look over the links below. We have until Jan. 30th to get our voices heard! We are in dire need of your help!

Feel free to forward this email to anyone you think might be able to help!

Youtube video that sums up this law very well:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUlY6zOMPqQ&feature=related

Please take a moment to vote to help save us all from the CPSIA!!
http://www.change.org/ideas/view/save_handmade_toys_from_the_cpsia
According to change.org:
"The top 10 ideas are going to be presented to the Obama Administration on Inauguration Day and will be supported by a national lobbying campaign run by Change.org, MySpace, and more than a dozen leading nonprofits after the Inauguration. So each idea has a real chance at becoming policy."

Sign the petition:
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/economicimpactsofCPSIA/

An easy way to write your Senator/Congressman about the CSPIA:

http://capwiz.com/americanapparel/issues/alert/?alertid=12274476
https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml
http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
http://www.cpsc.gov/cgibin/newleg.aspx

Make a statement or ask a question to the CSPC about the CSPIA
http://www.cpsc.gov/cgibin/newleg.aspx