Recall Items

Many of you have heard of the new CPSIA (Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act) passed by Congress lowering acceptable levels of lead in Childrens Products to 600ppm. The new law takes effect Feb 10th and, if no changes are made, will affect everyone from the manufacturing plants to retail stores to those of us selling in the secondary market including Goodwill, Ebay, Craigslist - even Church Fund Raisers and garage sales!

I'm sure many of you remember the scare of products coming from China last year that did not meet our US guidelines and were recalled for higher levels of lead. While safety for children is of high concern, Congress passed the CPSIA in a Knee-jerk reaction to this event and added the words "retroactive" to the bill meaning ALL PRODUCTS designed for children 12 and under must meet the new lower lead levels and be marked with new tags as of Feb 10th regardless of when they were manufactured.

It was designed to be a toy safety law, but its reach is much, much broader. And, like all broadly written, reactionary laws, it has very significant and largely unforeseen consequences. Like perhaps putting out of business thousands of small manufacturers of children's products, including some of our favorites - the small manufacturers of reusable cloth diapers, natural wood toys, handcrafted costumes, and innovative children's products. The new testing requirements these companies must now meet may cost more than the products they make!

You might think the new CPSIA doesn't affect you, but even if you don't design and sell children's products, you probably buy them. With the way the CPSIA is now, you may have far less products from which to choose and the ones left on the shelves may carry a price tag no one can afford. Large toy and clothing companies will survive because they can afford the required testing, but small companies will struggle, narrowing the selection of toys, books and clothing available.

I urge you to look into this bill. You can google CPSIA and find tons of info to read. Our hope is that they make amendments to take out the "retroactive" portion of the bill and focus where the problems started - products imported from China and other countries that don't have the same standards as us. The toys and clothing you bought at as recently as Christmas were considered safe by our government will now become "Hazardous Material" Feb 10th just because they do not have the tags stating they are safe! To me, that is stunning! If a product is unsafe- notify the public, put it on the recall list and make sure it is taken out of children's hands - but to blanket an entire group of products for "Children 12 and under" as unsafe after Feb 10th is going way beyond child safety. And what steps will the government take next... Start mandating that we aren’t allowed to keep any non-certified products in our own homes without penalty? Door-to-door inspections of homes with children? Requirements to throw out anything purchased before 2/10/09? Socialism at its best.

There's no doubt about the need to protect children but this law, as it stands, is not the answer. The economic effect this act will have on families who depend on thrift and consignment stores to clothe their children is disheartening. And yet smoking cigarettes around kids is perfectly legal as are so many other activities and products that we identified as health hazards years ago. I can't tell you how many customers thank us for being here. For many, the affordability of buying new items is out of the question. With the state of the economy this bill has not taken into account those that truly need second-hand items that are perfectly safe, let alone the environmental impact of discarding all of our so-called "Hazardous Material" into landfills!

If you can't tell, I'm a big believer in keeping government out of my personal business. Give me the information I need to make an informed decision for myself and my family instead of government stepping in and imposing broad restrictions.
What we are doing....
Last week the Consumer Protection Agency issued a press release stating that inventory in resale stores do not have to be tested, we will however, be liable if lead levels are found to be too high with stiff fines to follow. Many resale, consignment and thrift stores across the country are closing or completely dropping children's products and clothing from their stores not wanting to take on the possible liability.

Please know, here at As Good As New! we take the safety of children VERY seriously. We will continue to serve our customers in the same professional manner we always have. I'm a mom myself and would never want to sell something that would hurt a child. We receive daily updates on recalled products and keep on file 2 large binders for reference. We continue to educate our customers and let them know if something they bring in has been recalled and post recent recall information.

No clear guidelines were given on HOW to comply to this law since we have no testing equipment but we will make every effort to sell items that comply to the new standards. We have contacted many of our inventory manufactures for verification of lead content and have been assured their items meet or exceed the new restrictions even though they are not tagged to be so. We will continue to do our research & try our very best to stay up on this issue and make changes to our inventory as needed.