Protecting the Guilty by Punishing the Innocent

Posted by Valerie on January 2, 2009

Our family owns Jacobsen Books, a small bookstore in Clinton, Wisconsin. In our store, we sell wonderful books of all kinds, including rare books, books for collectors and researchers, and books for families and children. While we love great literature of all kinds, our initial specialty and first love is children’s literature. The children’s corner is the favorite area in our store.

It’s my understanding that after February 10, 2009, it will be illegal for Jacobsen Books to sell any “children’s product” unless it has been tested according to new lead safety standards. The Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 (CPSIA) requires lead testing of every batch of every children’s product, including books, and it includes no exemptions for used items, homemade items, adaptive and special needs items, or items already in inventory. The effects of this legislation could be devastating to our already troubled economy. Unless changes are made immediately, many children’s retailers are expecting February 10, 2009 to become known as National Bankruptcy Day.

Lead testing is important. I’m the mother of eleven children ages 18 years to 21 months. I love my children, and I definitely want to see my children and all American children safe and healthy. Protecting children from lead and phthalates is a good thing, but this legislation is very short-sighted. For sellers offering very low risk, very high quality products to children, this legislation threatens to destroy our small and medium-sized businesses.

Unless an exemption is added for used goods, our store will no longer be able to provide low-cost, high-quality used children’s books, but the ripple effect goes further. Hundreds of thousands of low-income families that rely on thrift stores and charities will be unable to buy clothing for their children. CPSIA specifically calls for educating thrift stores and charities on these new guidelines. Safety is a big concern, but we understand what the loss of these resources would mean to low-income families. In the early years of our family, we very often bought birthday presents and Christmas gifts for our children at thrift stores–and we still purchase most of our children’s clothing this way.

If all children’s products–clothing, toys, educational supplies, and books–will be considered “hazardous material” until tested under the new guidelines, then we will see an immeasurable, negative environmental impact. Small manufacturers and retailers, which can’t afford testing on their low-risk products, will be required to send clothing, toys, and books to the landfills. As responsible people, do we really want this?

Because there is no exemption for handmade items, this legislation may destroy numerous small home industries. Unlike the giant toy corporations, small home crafters cannot afford to have independent labs test all of the individual components of every one of their finished children’s products for lead and phthalates. The surprise in this law is that using lead-free components is not enough. A crafter making a child’s coat would be required to contract for separate testing on every component of the finished product–the lead-free outer fabric, lining, zipper, buttons, and trim. And this testing would be required for each component of each batch of every color and style. If a customer wants a hood added to that child’s coat, it will require a new lead test of all components of the entire finished product.

There is no exemption for adaptive devices for special needs children. These typically sell in very small quantities. A company making special adaptive spoons for disabled children may be making a tremendous difference in the quality of those children’s lives–but they may sell only 30 or 40 spoons per year. Even if they use only lead-free materials to manufacture their spoons, they will still be required to have every batch of every product tested for lead. At best, the prices of adaptive devices and specialty toys will increase. At worst, these items will disappear entirely.

There is also no exemption for items already in inventory. Unless changes are made to the CPSIA, the new children’s items in our store also cannot be sold after February 10th. Entire loss of inventory, with no hope for compensation, will mean bankruptcy for many children’s retailers. Will children’s products be the next bail-out?

If changes are not made to CPSIA immediately, then we will see millions of items of children’s clothing, toys, and books destroyed because they can no longer be sold in the United States. Our already burdened budgets will be pushed to the extreme as soon as we are faced with a steep rise in the cost of children’s products, due both to the extreme costs of testing and the disappearance of thousands of products from the market. CPSIA doesn’t affect only toys. It also includes clothing and shoes, the very necessities of life.

Retailers will not be able to do their own testing. We are not permitted to buy equipment or test kits to evaluate our own products. Instead, we at Jacobsen Books would need to purchase testing for every copy of every children’s book in our inventory. Since lead testing costs $100-$400 per product, it’s obvious that we’ll no longer be able to carry $2 to $5 children’s books. Unless action is taken soon, our favorite corner in our little store will no longer invite children to come, look, read, and enjoy.

What really hurts a small retailer like Jacobsen Books is that we’ve always been concerned with quality and safety in our products. We’ve made every effort to give children the very best we could possibly find for them. Back in 2007, we all read with horror about the lead contamination of products purchased from China by the biggest toy retailers in the country. Normally, we like to see the punishment fit the crime, but in this case it looks like the biggest offenders will be rewarded by the progressive elimination of their smaller competitors.

This legislation effectively bans the sale of most children’s literature. As a used bookseller and a preserver of our literary heritage, I’m opposed to book banning, regardless of the good intent behind it. I’m seriously thinking of visiting my congressman and senators, who all voted in favor of CPSIA. I’d like to stop by with a stack of some of our most beautiful children’s books–and ask them what I should do with these now “hazardous” products. Should I burn these books–or toss them in a landfill?