Wooden you?: Frank Burkhauser says many toymakers are upset by new restrictions. (photo by Becca Trabin)

Craft Cheer

Etsy members and toymakers express frustration over new legislation.

by Becca Trabin

Philly artisans worry the federal government will put them out of business.

The handmade wooden cars that Frank Burkhauser sells in his Pine Street shop will not poison your children. He’s sure of it.

“It’s wood and some mineral oils,” says Burkhauser, who owns Spirit of the Artist, a store selling a wide array of crafts. “I happen to know it’s safe, whether it’s tested or not. It’s wood and finish. They can eat it if they want.”

Burkhauser’s toys probably won’t appear on a kids’ menu anytime soon. But he and numerous other Philadelphia artisans are worried that new federal testing rules designed to protect children will end up forcing them to give up making toys, bibs, sweaters and other handmade items for children—leaving the entertainment and clothing of American youth entirely in the hands of big corporations.

“There’s panic in the market already,” Burkhauser says.

That panic was created by the new Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA), a federal law passed last year in the wake of safety scandals involving Chinese–made products. The act requires that all products created for children—including books, clothes and wooden toys—undergo testing and certification for toxic substances such as lead and phthalate.

What’s more, the rules apply both to big businesses and the “mompreneurs” making bibs to sell on Etsy. Mattel can afford to pay $550 to test a toy; for Philly’s community of knitters, woodworkers and other artisans—as well as the stores, like Burkhauser’s, that sell their goods—that same cost could be a deal breaker.

“There’s fear in the buyers because the buyers think they’re gonna have to pull out in the future,” Burkhauser says.

The crafters have already received one break. Facing an uproar over the requirements, the Consumer Product Safety Commission has issued a “stay of enforcement,” meaning the new rules—which were set to go into effect this month—won’t be enforced until Feb. 10, 2010.

That leaves the craft community uncertain about what’s next.

“There’s been some attorneys general who say they intend to enforce the law,” says Kathleen Fasanella, author of the book The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Sewn Product Manufacturing. ”We don’t know how stringent they’re going to be.”

But there is an opportunity to make the law work for everybody, she says, including consumers. She and many other industry insiders believe that the responsibility of testing for lead and phthalate should lie with the suppliers of raw materials.

“A lot of suppliers already certify their products, so we would like to be able to use our vendors’ third–party certifications. And right now, we’re not allowed to do that, which doesn’t make sense,” Fasanella says.

“If you make pajamas, you have to comply with flammability rules for kids, and we’re allowed to use certifications from fabric vendors for flammability. So we’re just saying it makes sense to do that with lead and phthalate testing as well.”

Even with the stay of enforcement, nervous chatter about CPSIA was prominent at the recent biannual Buyers Market of American Craft, hosted at the Pennsylvania Convention Center.

Wendy Rosen, president of the Buyers Market, is protective of her community.

“These people are the most organic people on the face of the earth,” she says. ”We all know that the toys that have been of the greatest concern have been imported toys.”

Rosen says the fear created by CPSIA has already damaged the industry.

“In a time of so much fear right now for small businesses, this is just too much,” she says. “What is the impact of fear and what is the impact of legislation? Those are two separate things.”

Fasanella, though, was hopeful.

“The point is that consumers need to be protected,” she says. “It’s not a situation of either/or, where only consumers or only manufacturers need to be protected. We can make this situation work for everybody.”