Hopefully everyone knows the current struggle of WonderToast and all small American businesses who manufacture for children (yes, even mom'preneurs!). If you don't, you may have vaguely heard of a congressional law that limits lead content in kids stuff. Sound familiar? Well on the surface, this is a great concept, but the law itself was a gut reaction to the import of children's toy parts from China that contained unhealthy levels of lead. Then they added pthalate limits too (heard of some chemical in baby bottles being harmful? yeah, that stuff) Soooo...this law covers every single product, US-made or imported, that could ever reach the hands of a kid 12 and under.
This includes all products made by me! The testing required for compliant certification under this law is restrictively expensive (we're talking somewhere in the neighborhood of $20,000 for my current inventory - and this would be an ONGOING cost!). I can't afford to stay in business past the law's August deadline if nothing changes in the law. Tomorrow, thanks to a really excellent collective of small Denver-based businesses, I will be doing a round of testing on my current inventory to confirm that my 100% organic kids clothes do not contain any harmful substances. Sharing the cost for this first round of testing is a god-send! (please bear in mind that this type of testing is NOT compliant for the August deadline, only the Feb. 10th one!)
I look forward to broadcasting WonderToast products' very safe & legal levels of lead tomorrow afternoon! In the mean time, please do all that you can to read up on this issue and contact your representative to convince them that changes must be made to make the Third Party Component Testing (Aug deadline requirement) fair & affordable to small business!
For me and my one-woman show, raw material testing (rather than finished product components) would take the financial burden off of me and still ensure confirmation of compliance.
Some helpful links:
Please help save WonderToast! He has many more global food adventures ahead of him this year - it would be a shame to cancel his travel plans now!
HUGE SAVINGS this weekend on Dim Sum and more!
