CPSIA – A Fuller Response to Rep. Butterfield

At yesterday’s hearing, Ranking Member Rep. G.K. Butterfield (D-NC) questioned our use of a strange lead label on our rock kits. We mark our rock kits with a label that says “Caution: Federal law requires us to advise that THE ROCKS in this educational product may contain lead and might be harmful if swallowed.” We also mark fossil kits with a similar label. I characterize this label as humiliating to us.

As I often say to people, these labels only tell half the story. We don’t warn people to not eat our rocks for the real reason – that they are rocks. Eating rocks can break your teeth. Eating fossils destroys our fossil record, too. This is not a good idea.

Mr. Butterfield questioned whether this label was really a CPSIA issue. I can understand the confusion. As I testified, we have to work hard to master the 3,000+ pages of CPSIA rules and law that pertain to our business. We have 5.5 people in our QC department now, including me, and an outside lawyer to help us, too. After about three years of work, we think we have a pretty good idea about how the rules work. Maybe on a good day . . . .

Much of this gobbledygook makes no sense – and count this example as Exhibit A for nonsense rules. I testified that I did not want to use this label and that we had a one hour conference call with our lawyer over this one label. I was overruled – we had to use it. I was not happy and remain miffed over the label.

Why did we have to do it?

Well, we sell rock kits that are intended for kids and schools. There’s no question about that. If you make a product aimed at kids, every part has to be lead-free, even if it’s a rock, a fossil or something else made by G-d long before man showed up to roam the Earth. We can’t “assure” ourselves that we are selling lead-free rocks because every rock is different. G-d’s QC processes predate the CPSIA, you see. Anyhow, to sell rocks to kids, rather than sell them pictures of rocks in our kits, we need an “out”. Otherwise, I suppose we risk jail time.

Hey, I didn’t write the damn law. Don’t blame me . . . .

Fortunately, there is a little crack in the veneer that allows us to keep selling rock and fossil kits. This section from the CPSC’s Q&A gives us a way to keep going:

“Are chemistry sets, science education sets and other educational materials excluded from the lead limits for content and paint and surface coatings if they bear adequate labeling under 16 C.F.R. § 1500.85?

16 C.F.R. § 1500.85 provides that certain articles that are intended for children for educational purposes are exempt for classification as a banned hazardous substance under the FHSA and the lead limits under CPSIA if the functional purpose of the particular educational item requires inclusion of the hazardous substance, and it bears labeling giving adequate directions and warnings for safe use, and is intended for use by children who have attained sufficient maturity, and may reasonably be expected, to read and heed such directions and warnings. For example, an electronics kit or robotics kit would be considered educational and the inclusion of a lead-containing component would not subject the kit to the lead testing requirements because the use of lead in some components is required to make the electronic device. Similarly, the materials used for examination or experimentation for science study such as soil, rocks, chemicals, dissections, etc. would also be exempt.” [Emphasis added]

In my opinion, this is shameful and wrong and misleading to consumers, but it’s our only choice. The CPSIA forces us to hire lawyers to figure out how to legally bend over, pick up a rock, put it in a box and sell it.

I have boldly decided to not label the flagstones leading to my front door because they’re not “Children’s Products”. If Trick-or-Treaters choose to lick the sidewalk on the way to our door next October, no one can blame me!

Blame Congress instead.

Read more here:
CPSIA – A Fuller Response to Rep. Butterfield

CPSIA – Jobs, the CPSIA and me

I saw this video tonight and it really frustrated me.

Michelle Rena Jones, the unemployed person featured in the video is a victim of our economic downturn, and of Michigan’s long dependence on the auto industry. She seems intelligent and highly employable. . . yet she is the part of the long term unemployed. She’s not alone by a long shot.

We employ about 150 people in our educational toy business. We consider ourselves fortunate to be able to provide these jobs, given the terrible recession, awful State funding prospects, and most importantly, the overhang of the fatal CPSIA. When I thought about Ms. Jones, I asked myself why we aren’t hiring right now.

Frankly, our business reflects the punk economy you hear about on TV. Right now, we lack the confidence that we can safely add people, or even more importantly, that we will see the sales volume to support new people. This closes most doors to new jobs at our shop.

Then there’s our ole’ pal, the CPSIA. What impact does the CPSIA have on our hiring mentality? Hey, I’m the guy who figured out that this government intends to jam me with a requirement to spend $15 million per annum on testing – how do you think it makes me feel? I assume smaller companies, including the crafters comprising the HTA, realize that despite the various promises and wiped-away tears at the CPSC, the new rules offer scant relief to the small fry. The rules mean business death – and that ain’t a job program, kids. If we’re toast, so are other small businesses. Actually, if we’re toast, everyone’s toast.

Right now, I cannot abide investing in our business. Expansion is a joke since the federal government has totally abandoned us. Trust has been obliterated, shredded, stomped on. Congress is completely deaf and the CPSC doesn’t give a darn – which is why after two years of work and “dialogue”, they produced the drivel we were to comment on last week. [For a candid assessment of those rules, please see my comment to Anne Northup's blogpost of August 11.]

Do you think any rational business manager would hire anyone while fearing that costs far exceeding his annual profits are about to be imposed? Forget it – business people suffering under the crushing burden of the wave of Obama hyper-regulation are thinking of how to survive. Bucking the rules won’t work, either – don’t forget that the agency has the power to press felony charges against anyone who knowingly breaks this law. 2011 is Tenenbaum’s “year of enforcement”.

Can’t wait. . . .

Ms. Jones won’t be likely getting a job from a children’s product company anytime soon.

Apparently, some people still wonder why voters are angry and why the Dems are being blamed. If anyone seriously can’t figure that one out, they’re as deaf as the stone deaf members of Congress we will be voting out of office . . . soon.

Very soon.

Read more here:
CPSIA – Jobs, the CPSIA and me