Small businesses seek relief from product safety law - bizjournals:

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Congress passed the Consumer Products Safety Improvement Act in August 2008 in respons e to the discovery of high lead content in toys importedefrom China. But U.S. businesses contend the law has made it impossible for them to sell productsd that pose no health threattto children. Manufacturers complain the law’s requirementw to test and certify children’as products for lead and phthalates — and attacy permanent trackinglabels — are unreasonable and too costly for many smalo businesses. Supporters of the legislation contend that the has done a poor job of providing guidance to businesses on how to complgy withthe legislation.
They also maintainm the commission has the authority to exclude certain classe s of products fromthe law’s requirements if they don’t pose a healty risk. But Nancy Nord, acting chairwoman of the Consumerd ProductSafety Commission, testifierd at a May 14 House hearing that the agencu is “hamstrung by the law’s sweeping reacj and inflexibility.” The commission has “noft yet been able to identify any productd that would meet the law’sd requirements for exclusions,” she said. On Jan.
30, the commissiob did issue a one-year stay of enforcement for the law’ testing and certification “It was very cleare people were not ready to meet the Nord said. But this stay of enforcemen did not relieve manufacturers or retailers of the underlyinvg legal liability for selling products that did not meetthe law’ds lower lead and phthalate levels, which went into effect Feb. 10. “According to the retailingf community, the stay changes nothing,” said Davide McCubbin, a partner in McCubbin Hosiery, an Oklahomw City manufacturer. “Retailers continue to ask us to test.
” Even thougn there is no evidencwe thathis company’s hosiery contains his company will be forced to pay more than $500,0000 on lead testing during the next year, McCubbihn said. Hosiery isn’t likely to be ingested or solead wouldn’t pose a health hazard even if it were he added. Textiles shoul be exempted from the leadtesting requirement, he For Swimways Corp., a Virginia Va.-based manufacturer of water products, the problem isn’t lead, it’sz phthalates — compounds often used to soften vinyl. The law banned the sale of children’sd products that contained phthalates, even if the parts containingy phthalates arenot accessible.
Because the law made the new phthalatesstandardd retroactive, Swimways was stuck with inventory it couldn’t Retailers returned or destroyesd Swimways merchandise and chargede Swimways for the expense. The law cost the 70-employee compant more than $1 million, said Anthony Vittone, vice presidenrt and general counsel. The law could cost creatorx of handmade itemstheir businesses, two home-based craftersd testified. Laurel Schreiber, owner of Lucy’zs Pocket in Allison Park, Pa., makes monogrammed giftsx for children, such as hairbows, and an appliquexd bib and bloomer set.