Bulletin E-Edition:
Lead law frustration
A white sweater has safe levels of lead. The same sweater in pink has unsafe levels. A button on a pair of shorts was lead-free. An identical button on the same shorts wasn’t. How will retailers comply with the new law?
By Zack Hall / The Bulletin
Published: February 06. 2009 4:00AM PST
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Shanna Laherty, co-owner of Stone Soup in Bend, uses a rented XRF analyzer to test lead levels on different parts of a toy on Thursday.
Photos by Rob Kerr / The Bulletin
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The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission is telling business owners to use their best judgment in deciphering what children’s products likely meet new lead requirements taking effect Tuesday.
If the experience of Stone Soup is any indication, that won’t be so easy.
The Bend reseller of children’s goods has rented a hand-held XRF (X-ray fluorescence) analyzer for a week, at a cost of about $1,500, to test many of the products in its west Bend store.
It has been an arduous process that has led to even more frustration for co-owners Chrissy Christoferson and Shanna Laherty.
“The CPSC is telling us to use our best judgment, and I am here to tell you that I cannot,” Christoferson says while testing thousands of products in a vacant storefront next-door to Stone Soup. “There is no way without better guidelines that I can use my best judgment and stay open.”
She had just tested a pair of seemingly identical sweaters — one white, one pink — manufactured in China by the same high-end children’s clothier.
The white sweater tested well under the 600 parts per million limit, the new threshold set by the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act, which goes into effect Tuesday, for lead in children’s products. The buttons on the pink sweater, however, didn’t meet the standard.
The new law says that if Stone Soup sold the pink sweater, the store’s owners could be fined up to $100,000 and serve jail time.
“The average person reading the paper is not going to get all the tiny little parts of it,” Christoferson says. “And they don’t need to. What they want to know is: ‘How does it affect me?’ This is how. Anybody with children should be amazed at those two sweaters.”
The law, which was passed by Congress six months ago, has caused an uproar among manufacturers, retailers and resellers of children’s toys in recent months.
The law says manufacturers must test and certify all their products for lead for children under 12 years old and that stores must stop selling goods that aren’t certified. That portion of the law was stayed last week until Feb. 10, 2010.
The lead limits and 1,000 ppm limit on phthalates, however, still go into effect Tuesday.
Manufacturers launched an effort Wednesday to stay the enforcement of the law for at least six months.
In the meantime, Stone Soup has attempted to test its inventory to at least buy the store some time before the law is stayed or more guidance has been given by the CPSC, which is in charge of enforcing the law.
The process has been an eye-opener for Christoferson and Laherty.
The biggest headache for the store owners has been the inconsistency in manufacturing. On one pair of shorts, the front button was free of lead. But an identical button on the back pocket tested for trace amounts of lead, though still under the 600 ppm standard.
A plastic ball that was part of a larger toy tested too high on one half painted one color, but fine on the other half painted another color.
“You can see the nightmare ahead of us,” Christoferson says.
Stone Soup rented the analyzer to try to comply with the law. But because of the expense of renting the bulky device and the amount of time it takes to test each and every component of a product, Christoferson says it will be difficult to maintain a testing program.
“At this point, we’re doing this as a public service,” Christoferson says. “I mean, we’re doing this to stay in business, but it also really is going to educate a lot of people what is going on out there.”
Zack Hall can be reached at 541-617-7868 or at zhall@bendbulletin.com.
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