New Law will Monitor Safety of Handmade items    Stan Wellborn

American Association of Woodturners magazine February 2010 issue

It's a rare day when a woodturner appears on the front page of the New York Times business section, but there he was on October 31, a Maine crafts­man standing at his lathe, under the headline, "Burden of Safety Law Imperils Small Toymakers."

The story was prompted by the mandates imposed by a federal law-the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act-passed in 2008 and intended to ensure that lead paint and other poten­tially harmful substances are not used in the manufacture of a wide variety of consumer products. Targets of the law include imports from Asia and Latin America, most by large toy and other consumer merchandisers.

The unintended consequence may be that small craft businesses and hobbyists, as makers of handmade items, will need to prove-through elaborate and expensive tests at authorized laboratories that their products are nontoxic and safe for children under the age of 12.  The new regulations are scheduled to be implemented in February 2010.

For woodturners, that could cover a host of craft and gift items: pens, tops, baby rattles, buttons, ornaments, jewelry, beads, key rings, bottle stop­pers, tableware-from scoops to honey dippers to salad bowls and serving trays-and an array of objects that the law mentions only as "small parts."

The good news is that turnings made entirely of untreated wood (without paint, surface coatings, or hardware) may be sold or given away without needing certification that they have passed testing for lead or other dangerous substances. However, the law states that any product that has an applied finish or uses certain glues or addi­tives is subject to testing. (Imported or exotic woods are not specified, although many individuals are allergic to some species.)

Who is covered?

According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), the law includes "all manufacturers and importers-large and small, domestic and foreign. All businesses, including handmade toy and apparel makers, crafters, those making charitable donations, and other small busi­ness must take appropriate steps to be sure that their products conform to all aspects of the law and safety standards, including the new lead

content and phthalates limits and mandatory toy standards."

In response, a number of small shops and individual crafts persons are orga­nizing to change the law, which clearly was intended to protect consumers from manufacturing practices that produce imported and mass-produced items for resale by large retailers such as Target and Wal-Mart.  Some of these imports have been tainted with lead paint and other harmful substances.

William ]ohn Woods, the toymaker from Maine who was featured in the Times article, estimates it would cost him around $30,000 to perform tests on the eighty different items he makes, which include wooden cars, boats, helicopters, and rattles.  His toys are made of maple, walnut, and cherry and finished with walnut oil and beeswax from a local apiary.

Woods and fellow members of the Handmade Toy Alliance are pressing Congress and the CPSC to exempt small craft shops and handcrafters from the law's provisions.

For further information, consult the following resources: