New safety rules go into effect for toys, children's products
4:58 PM Mon, Feb 09, 2009 | Permalink
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New federal regulations that take effect tomorrow will require retailers to pull toys, clothing and other children's products from their shelves if the items don't meet new, stricter limits for lead and chemical content. "Tomorrow is our Apocalypse Now date," said Rebecca Mond, government relations representative for the American Apparel & Footwear Association, a trade group in Alexandria, Va. "We're still hoping there's some time that people can untangle this mess." The new rules apply to for-profit companies and nonprofit agencies, which are worried about being fined or sued for violating the law and about how the changes will affect their operations. The Salvation Army says it will cost millions of dollars to check all the donated goods that it resells and to discard items that fail to meet the new standards. "We recognize this is well-intentioned legislation," Melissa Temme, the organization's national spokeswoman, said. "The ripple effect is perhaps a little bit more than legislators expected." Passed by Congress last August, the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act requires testing by independent laboratories of products for children age 12 or younger. The law was passed in response to last year's massive recalls of toys containing lead and other dangerous substances. Under the new law, civil penalties for failure to report problems and other violations of the act are significantly increased. Penalties will increase from $8,000 to $100,000 for each violation, and the current maximum penalty of $1.825 million is increased to $15 million. Criminal penalties will include higher fines and prison sentences can reach five years. "Up until Feb. 9, every toy in your store [was] good; now, on Feb. 10, there's a question," Jim Engle, president of Providence toymaker Little Kids Inc., said. The question for manufacturers, retailers and consumers is: What to do about products already on store shelves? "It's a roll of the dice for any retailer or manufacturer to leave untested product on the shelf," Carter Keithley, president of the Toy Industry Association, said in an e-mail last week to The Providence Journal. "The only way to demonstrate compliance is through testing." To see the Consumer Product Safety Commission's latest guidance on phthalates and lead click here and here. 
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