Child safety law a challenge for thrift stores

The News-Sentinel (Fort Wayne, Ind.) (MCT) - A new consumer protection law, which takes effect Feb. 10, has had resale and thrift shop owners worried that the mandated testing of children's clothing and toys for lead and certain chemicals could prove too costly to stay in business.

Some retailers last week said they were unaware of the law.

But on Thursday, after attorneys from the national office of Goodwill Industries and other organizations representing resale merchants lodged complaints with the Consumer Product Safety Commission and members of Congress, the CPSC backĽp-pedaled a bit and issued a statement clarifying that resellers do not have to certify that the children's items they sell meet the new lead and chemical limits.

But resale and thrift stores "cannot sell children's products that exceed the lead limit and therefore should avoid products that are likely to have lead content unless they have testing or other information to indicate the products being sold have less than the new limit," the new directive states.

Passed in July by Congress, the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act set stringent safety levels for lead and phthalates _ chemicals in plastics that have been connected to cancer. It mandates that clothing, toys, furniture and other items for children 12 and younger must be tested by an approved third-party company and manufacturers, importers and retailers must show written evidence that the products meet the new standards of lead levels below 600 parts per million starting next month and no more than 300 ppm by Aug. 14.

The law, which applies to all retailers of new clothing and children's items, says clothing or toys made of 100 percent natural products _ wool or wood, for example _ are exempt from testing.

Domestic and foreign manufacturers of children's clothing and products made after Feb. 10 must show certification of the testing and meeting of the new standards.

Although the testing of the products and certification of the testing is not mandated for thrift stores such as those run by Goodwill Industries or the Salvation Army, "Those resellers that do sell products in violation of the new limits could face civil and/or criminal penalties," CPSC officials wrote.

But locally, few operators or owners of thrift or resale stores are aware of the law and its mandated changes for children's clothing and toys.

"I've never heard of it," said Cindy Sordelet, owner of Kids Wear at 614 E. Dupont Road. Sordelet has owned the store for 15 years.

Steve App, who manages the Saint Vincent de Paul thrift store, 1600 S. Calhoun St., also had not heard of the law and said he did not know what the store would do to ensure all clothing and toys met the new standards. It is already a challenge to keep up with recalls of children's furniture or toys, he said.

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Likewise, Capt. Alex Velasquez, who oversees Fort Wayne, Ind.'s Salvation Army thrift stores, said he was unfamiliar with the new law.

Although some foreign-manufactured clothing or fabric may contain lead, the lead in unsafe levels is most often found in buttons, zippers, snaps or appliques and trim in imported clothing.

Goodwill is also concerned about the impact the law will have on the more than 22,000 U.S. and Canadian retail stores affiliated with the nonprofit.

"We're in the process of investigating how the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act will impact us," said Charlene Sarmiento, media relations specialist for the national office of Goodwill Industries. After CPSC released its revision, Sarmiento said, "We're still trying to get further clarification. We're still trying to wrap our heads around this."

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Bill Warriner, president and CEO of Goodwill Industries of Northeast Indiana, which operates five Fort Wayne thrift stores and four others in surrounding counties, said, "It will be interesting to see where this ends up. Ultimately we'll do whatever we have to do. At Goodwill, our first priority is always safety. We do everything we can to make sure that dangerous items, including those recalled by the CPSC, never make it to our store shelves." Store sales generate about 90 percent of the nonprofit's operating revenue to carry out its mission of providing job-skills training and employment services for people with disabilities and others who have employment barriers. About 75 percent of the nine area stores' 85 employees have disabilities or some other barrier to employment, Warriner said.

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When the new rules were signed into law in August, the selling of any recalled products became unlawful and carries civil and/or criminal penalties.

In its statement released Thursday, the CPSC said: "The agency intends to focus its enforcement efforts on products of greatest risk and largest exposure. While CPSC expects every company to comply fully with the new laws, resellers should pay special attention to certain product categories, including cribs and play yards; children's jewelry and painted wooden or metal toys; toys that are easily broken into small parts; toys that lack the required age warnings; and dolls and stuffed toys that have buttons, eyes, noses or other small parts that are not securely fastened and could present a choking hazard.

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© 2009, The News-Sentinel (Fort Wayne, Ind.).