Tuesday, December 9, 2008

A scary future for all WAHP businesses....

I'm sure many of you are aware of the new regulations going into effect this February. The Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) is trying to improve the quality of good available to all American's age 12 and under. It is a noble idea, and should certainly be enforced against imported goods from countries know to have "less than safe" products. However, it currently will be enforced unilaterally against all products markeded to children 12 and under. This will dramatically effect the wares available from small American companies. As it is currently written, Little Bear Knitwear, and many, many other small WAHP businesses will be closing up shop. The fines are astrinomical. (If fined, I'd lose my house trying to pay the fine.)
Anyway, there are oodles of sites to read more about this...certianly more eloquently stated than I am here.

I was directed to this site this morning.
http://capwiz.com/americanapparel/issues/alert/?alertid=12274476 In under one minute, you can email your state elected officials urging them to help to revise this act. It does not ask that the whole act be repealed...certainly I'd love to see stricter regulations against many MIC products. It does ask for the safety process to be ammended to allow wahp to make safe products. You also have the option to print out the letter and snail mail it to your officials' offices. It is quick and easy...you don't even need to know the name or address of your officals. The site will do it for you.

I appreciate you thinking about this....it is scary to all of us wahms....and consumers are afraid too...if it stays as currently written, it will change the way we shop for our children. :(

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