In August of 2008, important legislation passed that was intended to protect children from harmful lead in toys, equipment and clothing. Although the intention is good, the bill that was passed is poorly written. Thus, it will prohibit the resale of ANY used clothing, toys, equipment for children unless you can PROVE it is lead free. This means that stores such as Goodwill, Salvation Army, Kid to Kid, Once Upon a Child, any thrift store, all children's consignment sales, Ebay sales, Craigslist and GARAGE SALES are prohibited from selling children's clothing, toys or equipment after FEB. 10, 2009 unless they have had the item tested for lead and can provide verification that it is lead free.
This is SO detrimental to young families who depend on buying used clothing at consignment sales or thrift stores. This is also a problem for middle income families who sell their children's outgrown clothing at garage sales, consignment stores or ebay to provide the funds for the next season of clothing. Also, take into consideration what this will do to our landfills!!!! Can you imagine everyone throwing their toys away because the government says you are not allowed to sell them??? That's crazy! Anyway, below is a link to a news story in the LA Times regarding this new law that will take effect on February 10, 2009. Also, there is a link to a form you can fill out (takes less than 1 minute) and it will automatically send it to your state representatives regarding rewriting this legislation.
Contact Your Representatives!
LA Times Article
3 comments:
That is crazy! I was the youngest of 6 kids, and the we lived at the used clothing store we bought from there so much. It's not only necessary for those who can't afford new, it's going to perpetuate the notion of entitlement so many kids already have because the old stuff isn't good enough.
Obviously children have to be protected from lead, but common sense should be put in there too. Thanks for putting this out there... I'll pass it on to my friends.
What the..? Why to legislators bother going to law school if they are just going to write things wrong? This kind of stuff is so dumb, it makes me nuts. I am going to fill out the form.
I wonder if it applies to garage/yard salers?
This is absolutely nuts!!
My question to them would be: What about the first child who uses the items? Dont we want to protect them too?
It should be the manufacturers responsibility to make sure that the items they sell are not harmful to kids and adults.
Maybe we should manufacture our items in countries who have stricter laws and policies to test for lead and other harmful substances?
This law is absurd!
Lindsay
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