[Lancaster Online]

[Harl Delos]

A lot of your questions could be quickly answered if you'd simply take a few minutes and read the law, instead of making all sorts of absurd conjectures that amount to fear-mongering. You can find a copy of the law at http://www.cpsc.gov/cpsia.Pdf

You will find, for instance, the law is NOT retroactive. It only covers the sale of products for use by kids, and it only covers sales after the effective date. Stores do NOT have to discard anything that doesn't have a paper saying it's safe; they can sell it for use only by adults, or they can hope they don't get caught, or they can send the product back to the manufacturer.

Many storeowners refuse to pay for merchandise in a timely fashion, simply because they intend to return tired, shop-worn merchandise to the manufacturer because they were not able to sell what they bought. The manufacturer has a choice: he can accept the return, or he can face the fact that if he doesn't, that store will never buy anything from him again. It's dishonest, and a raw deal for manufacturers and wholesalers, but it's a pretty common trade practice.

What is the effect on schools, on libraries, on child-care centers? They may have to pay higher prices for the safe goods than they previously paid for unsafe goods, but the law doesn't directly affect them - there's nothing in the law about the use of unsafe products, only their sale.

Most new laws are pretty bad and CPSIA is no exception. The laws end up getting amended until they are something people can live with. But do you really want to defend the right of manufacturers to sell products for children if they are going to cause brain damage or even death?

In the food industries, certain foods are considered GRAS, or "generally recognized as safe". Because food manufacturers are closely regulated, restauranteurs are generally safe in assuming that if they engage in good practice, their products will be wholesome.

We can't do that with products for children, unless we regulate all the suppliers for companies that make things for children. You can cut down a tree in your back yard, and make wooden blocks from it - but is that wood safe? It contains minerals from the soil it was grown in. One only has to mention "Love Canal" to realize that we don't always know what's under the ground - and that our ignorance can cost children dearly.

Our legislators are both lazy and dumb. One of the things that lobbyists do is to write legislation for legislators. Understandably, if you're a lobbyist for the toy industry, you're going to favor laws that benefit the big toymakers that are paying your salary, rather than the mom-and-pop outfits that compete with them.

The legislator who robs Peter to pay Paul can always count on the support of Paul. If you consider politics to be a spectator sport, you're volunteering to become tomorrow's Peter. Get active - or get used to it.

[pml]

Now since I am called a child hater on these threads, you may be surprised that I agree with this law. First of all big corporations buy from China becasue they save money. Toys are still expensive to the consumer, but CEOs of walmart, k-mart, toysrus, etc still get big bonuses because they make more profit.
Now and no this is not about smoking, but cigs are made int eh US of A yet smokingin a car with a child is considered abuse, feeding a child too much McDonald's causing them to be obese is abuse. How then to companies get away with selling dangerous toys, clothing and books to children?

I do not have kids but if I did, I would want to know that the toys and games I buy for them are SAFE. And would like to think that by purchasing them I am helping some AMerican worker keep there job. However since you can not even buy salmon in the grocery store that does not come from China, well I am not surprised but am apalled since the US has real problems with China's human rights issues yet all American companies are more than willing to do business with them to save a buck so CEO's can continue to pay employees minimum wage, rape the consumer and then live large themselves.

I wonder if the CEO of Walmart's wife shops at walmart? I knwo my dentists kids don;t and he is very proud of that. In fact after taking 200 bucks of my money for a cavity that never existed, bragging that his kids just went to England and don;t shop at K-mart, he is no longer my dentist.

[xmenno]

Norm Huss gets it right. This law will drive my daughter and her husband out of business eventhough their wooden toy products are safe. As Ronald Regan stated, "If it moves, tax it. If it continues to move, regulated it. If it stops moving. subsidize it." Libs are so stupid. They want you to think they love children and will protect them at all costs, but when it comes to killing the unborn, they say they are non-persons. Animals have more rights than the unborn.