Lead Law, Shmead Shmaw...

For the past several years I've supported my family mostly by selling children's clothing online. This past summer a bill was passed into law that is causing many people like me to have no choice but to close shop. The CPSIA has decided that our children are eating too much of their clothing and therefore have placed a lead law into effect which can land us with fines and even jail time.

I'm short on time so I'll save the specifics for another post. This is just a rant for now. I've read over this law and I can't honestly believe that anyone who voted and passed this through even read it. I think they heard "This is a law to protect our children from unsafe lead levels in toys, books, etc" and they thought if it's to protect children, how can it be bad? Well, what about the children whose parents are left without income because of the stiff penalties they face for operating their small businesses?

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for protecting our children and as a mother, my heart goes out to any parent whose child has been hurt by lead poisoning. I simply don't think this law was well thought out and planned for. I've read that there's already a stay of enforcement for one year but in the meantime, what are we to do? I have inventory that I'm not able to sell because I can't afford to have each item tested. With the way our economy is, this is the last thing we need to worry about.

The thrift stores in my area have cleared out most of their children's clothing as well as toys and books. Think of the drop in sales they're going to face because of this. Also, with some people scraping to make ends meet, they rely on thrift stores and second hand clothing to keep their children clothed. What are they supposed to do? Let their children go naked? Oh and don't say they can get hand me downs from Freecycle or Craigslist. Nuh uh. This law makes it illegal to even GIVE the clothing away.

As I said earlier, I don't have time to really get indepth on the subject right now and the more I think about it, the more irritated I get so I'll save it for another time, maybe. I'm done ranting for now. I feel so much better, NOT!