Lead in Children's Products

Lead in Children's Products
Updated on 5/28/2009
Do to overwhelming feedback from small business like yourselves, the Consumer Product Safety Commission has given a 1 year reprieve to comply with the expensive lead and phthalate testing, i.e. until February 10, 2010 – check out this link:
Also, because he has been really listening to the feedback, Senator Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) says he is planning to introduce legislation to modify the new law so it makes sense for small business, and everyone, but still protects our children. Here is the link to what he is proposing:
which includes provisions for component testing instead of redundant testing of the finished product when you know all the components are safe.
This gives us all more time to comply. We at Dharma Trading will continue to pursue getting certificates of compliance from our vendors on all the dyes, paints and other products that you all use in your businesses and will post them as we get them so that you can download them and be in compliance by the time this is all ironed out.
Congress recently passed the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 (CPSIA) aimed at protecting children 12 years of age and under from all products containing lead and pthalates. You can read all about it here: http://www.cpsc.gov/about/cpsia/cpsia.html It is to take effect 2/10/09, but testing and certificate of compliance requirements have been postponed for a year as we stated above. Basically, the part that effects this business is that as of 2/10/09, you may not legally sell products for children 12 and under that contain more than 600 ppm lead, and that amount will go down to 300 pm, than to 100 ppm under their schedule.
While originally aimed at toys, but now apparently all inclusive, it appears to be a very poorly written law which has already created much fear, confusion, and concern. Contrary to what other websites might be telling you, it is not just for "durable goods" or things with paint. You must read the whole thing, not just parts of it, to see that. What is clear already is that there will be exemptions made and in fact it may be totally rewritten before they start enforcing it in 2010. Here are some links which provide additional information.
Understand that we are all still trying to understand this law and do whatever we are supposed to do to be in compliance by the deadlines. For now, here is some information we think is useful and correct but we are not lawyers, nor do we have a "legal dept.", and so we encourage you to do your own research:
The law will apply only to products that are intended to be sold for use by children 12 years and under. If you are not selling products like that, it should not apply to you. You can forget about it. For example, we don't think a hand painted silk scarf or an adult tie dyed T-shirt is covered.
For us, we are going through our products, determining which might be used on children's products, and doing research. As we get more information, we will post it here. Those products, if any, which we determine to contain lead will be labeled: "Not for use on products for children 12 years and under". But basically, we are finding out that none of our products contain lead, with the exception of Swarovski Crystals (see below their statement about this).
FABRICS
Un-dyed natural fabrics like cotton, silk, wool, etc. are going to be made exempt, as is clothing made with those fabrics and sewn with those threads. It looks like they will also be exempting these same fabrics dyed, as they have finally figured out that dyes do not contain lead, so that is very good news for all of our customers who use our dyes.
CLOTHING
Clothing for those over 12 years is not involved.
Children's clothing which includes snaps and zippers have to use lead free ones. We have been assured by most of our manufacturers that the snaps or zippers in our infant and children's clothing are lead-free. We are waiting for documentation from each manufacturer to confirm that. We will post the documents here as we receive it.
UPDATE:We have been assured by our Chinese manufacturer that the snaps in our baby clothing (one piece rompers etc) contain no lead. They have provided a kind of certificate to that effect although not the official one required. To further allay our concerns, we had the snaps informally tested locally and received the following report:
"I tested the snaps you sent me. According to our X-ray fluorescence analyzer, there was no lead detected."
We now are pursuing getting an "official" certification form from a laboratory for documentation purposes. We will link the form here when we get it.
DYES
Our Fiber Reactive "Procion" Dyes, to the best of our knowledge, do not contain any lead. The MSDS (Material Safety Data Sheets) do not indicate the presence of any lead. Our manufacturer has told us that if lead is not listed on an MSDS, it means that if it is even present at all, it would be way under 100 ppm and more like a few ppb (parts per billion!). They are currently testing their dyes and will be providing Certificates of Compliance proving this when they are done. We will post them for you to download when they do. They have many other products they make, so this all takes time. The really important thing to feel assured about is that once you have dyed something with Fiber Reactive dye, the dye is permanently bonded and does not come off, which actually makes it extra safe for children's clothing over other dyes.
Some of our other dyes already have the Non-Toxic certification which would indicate they are lead-free or also have such low levels that they are in total compliance with the new law. This is shown on the label, in the catalog, and on our web-site. NONE of the MSDS for ANY of our dyes indicate the presence of lead. As we find more out about the dyes, we will post it here.
MARKERS
Most of our markers are also certified non-toxic. The MSDS on the markers also do not indicate the presence of lead. Those that are not certified non-toxic do not necessarily contain lead either. We are looking into them all. Here is what we have so far:
PAINTS
Again, almost all are Certified Non-Toxic. Those which are not, we are asking if they are lead free, but again, NO presence of lead is indicated on any of the MSDS for any of our Fabric Paints.
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