Save Handmade!

 

I have recently been made aware of an issue very close to my crafty-mama heart. Remember all the toy recalls over the last couple of years? With the lead in some plastic and wooden toys, and harmful phthalates and BPA in still other plastic toys and baby bottles? Well, a new law has been passed that attempts to remedy this situation. It's called the Consumer Products Safety Improvement Act, and it says that anything sold for use by children younger than the age of 12 must be first tested for lead and be phthalate-free. Sounds great, right?

Except for one thing. It applies to handmade goods, as well. Like the stuff we all buy on Etsy for our families. Like the stuff many of us make and sell ourselves. My dolls, the handmade slings a friend of mine sells, children's clothing, toys, even wooden toys from Europe. (At least one major European toy manufacturer, Selecta, has already pulled out of the US market in anticipation of the new law. It would affect the Ostheimer figures that I love to collect, virtually everything sold by my favorite online and catalog companies, and so much more.) At a cost of up to $1500 per item, lead testing would be cost prohibitive for most small-scale makers of handmade children's items. It would be devastating to work-at-home moms, craftspeople, and artisans in the US and around the world.

Please follow this link and find out how to get involved -- it's as easy as sending a note to your congressman. Those of us who value handmade for our children need to make our voices heard. Please do it -- for all of us who make, sell, and buy handmade!

{PS: To post the button on your own blog or website, go here.}