The Washington Times posted an Op Ed piece from CPSC Commissioner Nancy Nord on overregulation and its costs on society. In this case, the overregulation is the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act – the source of all of the extinct and endangered toys on our web site. I applaud this voice of reason from the CPSC. Excuse the Biblical comparison, but this voice is a small source of hope crying out in the wilderness. I too, have added my voice and pen as has the Handmade Toy Alliance and many others. Unfortunately, the wilderness is vast and without dimension.
This is the wilderness where just this year, congress debates and passes the Eshoo bill to “Eliminate” lead in drinking water. In this case, “Eliminate” means reducing the allowable lead in faucets and pipes to 0.25% which is 2,500 ppm or 99.75% lead free. The pipes and fixtures our drinking water flows through are allowed to have 25 times more lead than the toys we play with, the bikes we ride, and the blocks we stack.
If common sense and reason worked in Washington DC, the CPSIA would be fixed by now and all of us small businesses crippled by this burdensome regulation would be on the road to recovery instead of on the path to ruin. Meanwhile, the regulations tilt the marketplace in favor of toys mass produced off-shore and the culture of specialty, unique, handmade toys withers.