The Negative Side of Toy Safety Legislation
There is a law that will come into effect to protect the safety of consumers. However, this legislation render the small, entrepreneurial inoperable or in contravention of the law:
“…After a spate of toy recalls made headlines in 2007, Congress passed the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act in July 2008. The law, which goes into effect on February 10, sets strict limits on lead and phthalate (a harmful chemical found in plastics) content in toys and other children’s products. Toymakers must certify their wares’ compliance via third-party testing, which can cost anywhere from less than a hundred dollars to several hundred dollars per test – and each component of a toy, such as zippers, buttons, and paint, must be tested separately. Retailers must also ensure that their entire inventory is certified. Toymakers and retailers who violate the law face fines of tens of thousands of dollars.”
link: New law could wipe out handcrafted toy makers
Obviously, there are inequities in this legislation. Let your Congress representative know that a solution is needed to protect the small entrepreneurs. In this economy, this legislation will create unnecessary hardships – and it is simply not fair.
Catherine Forsythe
2 Comments
Unleash Your Creativity | Chris Pirillo
January 18th, 2009
at 3:35am
[...] Is there a negative side to toy safety legislation? [...]
Eric
January 19th, 2009
at 11:29am
This once of The Land of The Free (America), it is now The Land of The Privileges.
Used to be able to buy a normal coffee maker, Now you can’t find one without Auto off. Because of a few idiots that left theirs on and it caused a fire…. The person that left it on should have been held accountable not the makers of the maker.
Used to buy normal cigarettes, Now we can only buy ones that go out by themselves. Some would say this is safer….. think about that for a while, me and many other truck drivers are hauling 60,000+ lbs. of products, re-lighting our cigarettes 20 times while we’re driving in the opposite lane from you divided only by a yellow line, with trucks that like to wonder. Because some idiot fell asleep and burnt his house down.
There’s yet another law getting ready to go in-front of congress… that is… to ban all novelty lighters(the ones that look like tools, or whatever), because some kid got burnt playing with one.
There trying to ban cell phones while driving… screaming kids in the back seat, while the driver turns around and smacks them isn’t disturbing anyone? and is safe? I can think of tons of things I’ve seen in my lifetime on the road that are a lot more dangerous than talking on a cell phone. I’ve seen the cops talking on their cell phones while driving. If you can’t drive and chew gum at the same, do the right thing and throw the gum out, ( don’t talk on the phone ).
Were has people sense of responsibility gone? Where is the sense of responsibilities gone?
Make the stupid, or space cadet, pay for their neglect. Why should everyone pay for those people that haven’t got a clue.
Make the person that burnt his home down with the coffee maker pay to replace it, at least give him a good fine (good idea to raise some tax money for the state). This way when I go to my coffee maker my coffee isn’t cold.
Make both types of cigarettes… regular cigarettes for regular people, and fire safe cigarettes for the absent minded people. This way I can enjoy my cigarette safely…even though I have to do it in the rain, out in the freezing weather, and 25ft away from any public building (jesss this sounds familiar doesn’t it, Jessie Jackson should be all over this one).
Let the companies make and sell their nifty little lighters. Lets look at the parents that left the lighter somewhere for their kids to play with it. Sounds like a good case of neglect to me.
Cell Phones… Well, I wouldn’t get the next job location without it so I’m always going to be using mine, regardless of some anti-cell phone group (probably a bunch of people that are either to old or to stupid to try and figure out how to use one). Another way for states to raise some money. Fine the hell out people that cause accidents using them. Most all phones have voice activated address books, and speaker phone, so there really is no reason to take your eyes off the road. Talking on the phone is no different that talking to someone sitting next to you…. you can get lost just as easy in a conversation with either one. And if you’re one of those people that text while driving…. then I have the perfect coffee maker and cigarettes for you…. texting requires you to take your eyes off the road for way to long, don’t be an idiot. Always amazes me when I see someone driving and reading the news paper, maybe that will be the next thing to be banned.
There is yet one more example of stupid laws…. that is slowly getting turned… Why isn’t pot legal? I don’t smoke it and I wouldn’t if it was, but that’s up me not some anti-drug group that makes it a law…. they should educate people about it, not pass their beliefs onto me by making a law. How many times, or should I say what is the percentage rate of accidents related to pot smoking vs. alcohol. The States make a killing on the taxes on booze, and cigarettes, their missing out on the taxes they could be collecting off of it.
I hardly ever hear of anyone getting hurt or killed by pot, yet you read or see alcohol related accidents, people dying from alcoholism, or someone innocently killed by someone that was drunk, all the time. All I ask is that people ponder that idea for a little while.
If people would just remember that this is the land of the free, I can’t believe that there are people out there that are disrespecting all those that died for that freedom, by slowly making this country a dictatorship, with all these laws.
With all the about in mind… I say leave the toy companies alone. DAMIT.