Shop Owner Discusses Testing of Her Hand-Made Items Resulting From CPSIA

[This is another in a series of posts by Susan Maphis covering the impact of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA). For more information about the CPSIA, read Susan's previous article: The End Of Handmade and sign up for her CPSIA Alerts Mailing List ]

Caroline Riepler of Little Journeys Baby World has been producing a variety of hand-made items such as blankets, burping cloths and baby bonnets since 2001. Her website already displays the statement: “Compliant with CPSIA HR.4040. Little Journeys Baby World has been and always will be free of lead. Certification of Compliance available upon request.”

Although Riepler can afford to do XRF testing on her products now, she is uncertain of the future. “If they want us to do third-party testing in August, that will probably close down my door,” she says.

Riepler has contacted third-party testing companies in her home state of Colorado. A lab in Boulder told her it would charge $50 per component to test for lead and $450 per component to test for phthalates. Her quilts currently retail for $220, she said, and have a wholesale price of about $110.

“Can you imagine? That would put me out of business because I can’t afford the testing,” Riepler says. “I wish they would rewrite the law so that the supplies you get have been tested already, so that when we put it together, it does not have to be tested again.”

The mother of a 5 year-old, Riepler says that the last thing she wants to see is children harmed by too much lead or phthalates in a toy or blanket. However, she feels that the law punishes small businesses like hers that produce one-of-a-kind items made of high-quality, safe materials. “I think they were doing a good thing, but they didn’t know the effects of everything down the road,” Riepler says.

Riepler has written suggestions to the CPSC on how to make the law more business-friendly for small companies like hers. She has also contacted local representatives. You can view Riepler’s products, such as the Western Boo Bunnies pictured above (designed to hold ice cubes to place against a child’s boo-boo) at LittleJourneysBabyWorld.com. Many of her items are currently on sale at 50% off regular prices.

[ For more information about the CPSIA, read Susan's previous article: The End Of Handmade]