CPSIA Regulations and What They Mean to Retailers
by Christina Lee on March 27th, 2009
Q: What information do you know that ties into the new regulations for governing products produced for kids under 12 years old? I know this process has been delayed for one year, but how does that affect the small business owner in t-shirts?
Donya, in response to “How to Start Your Own T-Shirt Business”
A: What Donya is referring to is the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA), which Congress passed last August in response to last year’s mass recall of products, namely of toys with high lead levels or lead-based paint.
As a result, the act forces manufacturers and retailers to comply with three major requirements. Two of these deem mandatory testing for high levels of lead and phthalates, which are used to make plastics more pliable, for every single part of the final product. For the t-shirt retailer, this means the fabric (including cotton, unless undyed) and every embellishment (zippers, buttons, fasteners and even heat transfers).
By Feb. 10, retailers had to take all inventory with high levels of lead (over 600 parts per million) and phthalates (over 1,000 parts per million) off of their shelves, making “millions of safe products … legal on February 9 and illegal on February 10,” as the Consumer Product Safety Commission stated last month.
The act also stated that after Feb. 10, retailers are required to get third-party laboratory testing on all finished products. However, the commission approved a one-year stay just three weeks prior, delaying this implementation until 2010.
Even still, some retailers found the cost of such testing has been high enough to go out of business. T-shirt retailers are required to send in one t-shirt of every style and color, which Kristen J., owner of Baby Brewing, quickly found out. According to her calculations, the total cost of testing her line of “I’m better than a puppy tee,” excluding the onesie and long-sleeved versions, and in pink, blue, organic cotton and white, could amount to $1,800.
“Maybe I shouldn’t have offered all those colors in all those different styles,” she wrote in the DC Metro Moms blog. “Maybe I shouldn’t have given my customers so many options.”
Unfortunately, such considerations have become more commonplace. Pamela Kramer revealed in a Jan. 16 blog entry that removing gowns and bibs from her Happy Panda baby clothing line became the only option she had to meet their phthalate testing requirement.
“That is the only cost effective way to comply,” she wrote.
In the meantime, the Consumer Product Safety Commission will be taking public comment in response to four proposed rules it hopes to finalize over the next year, including new label information requirements and potential consequences for not complying.
“It is critical that we develop component part testing requirements in a way that adds clarity, eliminates some unnecessary testing and provides limited relief to product sellers, especially small manufacturers,” Nancy Nord, the commission’s acting chairman, wrote in a letter to its main sponsors, Reps. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and Bobby Rush (D-Ill.), in addition to Sens. Jay Rockefeller and Mark Pryor.
As suggested in an interview by Classy Mommy’s Colleen Padilla, Kramer outlined a few ways in which retailers can make the best of their one-year stay:
- Reevaluate your product line as you calculate how much third-party testing will cost you. Now is a good time to consider streamlining.
- Talk to your suppliers, to make sure that their materials have been certified by the commission.
- Organize a lead-testing party, the CPSIA Cheerleader way.
- Discuss what this act means to you, with your fellow t-shirt retailers, your local congressmen and the commission.
For more information on the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act, visit the commission’s Web site. Other useful sources include Fashion-Incubator and the Happy Panda baby blog.