State now requires testing on all children’s products
By: Katie Worth
Examiner Staff Writer
January 5, 2009
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| Don’t touch that: Charmian Saint John and son Shade, 3, shop Monday at Peekbootique in The City. Children’s items will now be tested for lead and a product used in plastics. (Cindy Chew/The Examiner) |
SAN FRANCISCO — Tens of thousands of California thrift stores, garage-sale hosts and eBay peddlers have been selling illegal goods for the past five days — and they probably didn’t even know it.
Even if they were aware of it, they probably wouldn’t know exactly how to avoid it, except to take all their children’s clothes and toys to the dump.
A state law that went into effect Jan. 1 makes it illegal to sell or give away any children’s items — including clothes — that haven’t been tested for lead or phthalates, a chemical used to make plastics more pliable. The same will be true throughout the rest of the nation Feb. 10, when a similar federal regulation goes into effect.
Under the new laws, any product meant for use by children 12 and under that has not been tested will be considered hazardous and must be taken to a landfill.
Though the laws were aimed at forcing manufacturers to use less lead and other toxins in children’s items, the regulations were worded so broadly that the ban applies to all sales, including anyone trying to sell secondhand products. That could lead to big problems for purveyors of used goods.
Linda Wilson, general manager of Thrift Centers in San Carlos and Hayward, said she hadn’t heard a word about the new regulations and was baffled to hear that her stores had likely been breaking a state law.
“You would think they would notify all the retailers and all the thrift stores and everybody,” she said.
If she’s required to throw out all her children’s items, not only would her business take a hit but so would her customers.
“We get a lot of low-income people who don’t shop anywhere else because they can’t afford it,” she said.
Antoinette Guilfoyle, who has worked at Peekabootique in San Francisco’s Noe Valley for five years, said the consignment store takes care not to buy used goods with toxins in them by checking whether the item has been recalled.
But under the new regulations, that’s not enough, said Bill McGrath, an attorney who advises retailers and manufacturers about the law. In order to fully comply with the law, he said, a secondhand store would have to contact every item’s manufacturer to see if the product has been tested for toxins, or perform those tests themselves — and that would be prohibitively expensive.
Dana Simas, spokeswoman for the California Attorney General Jerry Brown, said though the new regulations do apply to all secondhand sellers, it’s unlikely the state will be on the lookout for such violations.
“We don’t just go around trying to take down secondhand stores,” she said.
Testing for toxins
A new state law that went into effect Jan. 1 is intended to protect children 12 and under from hazardous materials in certain products.
WHAT: Both California and the federal government have adopted new, stringent rules limiting levels of lead and the toxin phthalate in children’s products, including toys. No such products can be sold or even given away if their levels of toxins are too high or are unknown.
WHO: Everyone on the supply chain — manufacturers, distributors, retailers, secondhand retailers — is affected, including small-scale craft makers and Craigslist posters.
WHEN: State law went into effect Jan. 1; federal law goes into effect mid-February.
WHY: Both lead and phthalate — a product used in plastics — are thought to be toxic, particularly to children. The idea is to minimize exposure.
Sources: California Attorney General’s Office, U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission
