American factories have been safe in the past. Personally I don’t give a fig about the importers as this is where the problem began. Big businesses who care more about making more of a profit and taking jobs out of this country. I will never again buy from these larger companies who weren’t watching the stove as the pot boiled over. I don’t think I can ever trust them again.

I do care about all the small businesses that are going to be lost because of this poorly crafted law. Businesses that can’t afford to test every item they make by hand. Businesses that don’t have deep pockets.

I happen to like buying my grandchild toys and other items not made in large factories in China where it seems it’s ok to poison not only one’s own people but those you are selling to. I know I sound angry. But we almost lost our pets to the poisoned pet food that came out of China. I’m tired of worrying about what else won’t be found so I’m simply avoiding those products that are not made here or in countries that I can trust. I’ve even started asking where my pain meds are being made just because if they’re made in China I’ll need to find different meds. The same goes for the foods we buy. Items that do not have labeling will not be coming into our home. We are buying local foods as much as we can because we know what goes into them.

I understand the need for testing but I don’t understand why if the items you get to make something are certified to be ok the end product must be tested. At a time when American jobs are needed to keep our country afloat it seems counterproductive to create a law that will destroy the cottage industries that make up so many of those needed jobs.

I’d just like to let people know that in Indonesia, there is already alot of awareness of the need to comply, esp for childrenswear, with these kind of regulations. Some EU countries (notably Germany) have been enforcing very similar requirements for some years already. Many medium to large Indonesian manufacturers have had orders returned cause of non-compliance, and know what materials they need to use and not use in order to comply. It’s only the small and small-medium suppliers that may have trouble understanding the requirements / verifying the quality of the products they are using in manufacturing processes.

I realise this does not help for US importers struggling with the new testing requirements, but obviously starting off with the right (complying) manufacturer is a big step in the right direction. Both in terms of business, and mankind in general

Thanks for continuing to post!

BullfrogsandButterflies’s last blog post..Help Save Handmade Products!

Question - I was informed by a fellow designer/friend that even if you printed/created the products before the effective date, all products are subject to being tested.

She also informed me that if you do a run of a design, have it tested, and later on do a separate run of the same design, it has to be tested again.

My question to you - what will you do with products that are already out there at stores?

Thanks for any insight.