Puzzles n Things

CPSIA safety

CPSIA is a law that was put into the books last August after many toys from China were demonstrated to contain high amounts of lead in there paints.  These toys were made in China after our trusted companies Mattel, Fisher Price, Play School and others, transferred their companies overseas to increase there profits.

They did not maintain there same quality control that we have all grown up with and expected from these trusted names in children's products.  Also, these products were not tested appropriately when they came into our stores.

Our government tried to correct this problem and put out this law, voted on by a majority of both houses, so our children would not be subjected to these dangers anymore.  The law went into affect on February 10th, 2009.

The law has many flaws and has not been finally worked out as to just exactly how this problem will be decided.

One of the problems seems to be whether or not painted toys have lead in excessive amounts in there products.  There solution was to require third party testing of all groups of toys to make sure that the paint did not contain lead.

The biggest problem comes from the expense of third party testing and that most third party testing facilities are in China.  Most of the labs in the USA are not even set up yet.  So even though we know our paints do not contain lead, we can not get the certification that this law seems to require.

I hope that our customers will accept that our paints, our detailing, and even our glue is tested already and carry the ASTM D 4236 seal stating that there is NO lead in our paints, etc.  We are working on changing this law because we wish all of our customers children to be safe from this problem, and this law at present form does not protect our children.  The same paints that you buy at stores in the USA and you trust to be lead free, as you should, are the same ones we use.

I know this is a long dialog and I thank all of you for taking the time to read it.  Other handmade toy manufacturers are working on this also.  We all care about the safety of our products.  

Lee and Dennis Williams; 1021 Bella Drive; Napa, California 94558

Telephone: (707)-226-5141