We love the idea of handcrafted, nontoxic wooden toys, right? But crafters of goods for children will soon be impacted by the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act or CPSIA, which was designed to protect kids from lead and phthalates but could bankrupt artisans.
Toymaker Amber Dusick aka woodmouse has her wood shop in her garage in downtown LA. After the birth of her son, this one time farm girl from Minnesota became nostalgic for the toys from her past: simple, natural toys that would inspire creativity and imaginative play, made from materials that wouldn’t stick around in a landfill for thousands of years.
In a related story, Change.org reports on the problems with the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act, or CPSIA, which is scheduled to go into effect this month. Following the lead scare with products from China, CPSIA mandates that all products for kids from new and used clothing, books, toys, and bicycles, to jewelry, all children’s products would need to be tested for lead and phthalates, and marked indelibly with tracking information. Normally, we would think this is a good idea, right? But handcrafters of goods like wooden toys say the cost of the required testing would bankrupt them.
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