Go shopping for children's clothes and toys before February 10!
A new law that calls for every child's toy and article of clothing to be tested for lead and phthalates is about to make it virtually impossible to buy handmade or used children's toys or clothes from places like Etsy, resale stores, or small businesses. Sellers are going to be required to pay for testing on each item they create or sell--sometimes hundreds of dollars per piece. And who's going to shell that out, when the sale price of the item likely brings in a fraction of that?
Long story short: It's good to have safe toys for children. But the majority of the problem was found in imported toys (specifically from China). This is taking it too far. Hundreds of small businesses will have to close. Resale shops for children will not exist. Goodbye, mom-to-mom sales, and the children's departments of Goodwill. Children's toys and clothing are about to become a LOT more expensive. Maybe most gallingly, items that haven't been tested will be automatically considered unsafe and must be thrown out, so landfills will be overflowing with perfectly good items that people couldn't afford to test.
Many small businesses and resale shops are unaware of the law as of yet, which means they'll be slammed with fines when they're noticed.
Way to go, government!
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