Lead

Once again our Government is hard at work attempting to protect our children from the dangers of lead poisoning. Or are they just trying to make restrictions on overseas importers on the products that are being sold by our retailers today? Last summer a law was passed that will be put into action on February 10, 2009 that will ban all sales of consumer products to children, 12 and under, that contain 600 ppm of lead. The real kicker here is that as the years go by that standard will decrease, so long as it is technologically feasible. At this point you might be asking yourself how this will affect your buying power and what you purchase for your children.

This new law covers all children products, clothing, books, toys, playthings and anything else that is directed towards a child. The ban also includes reselling of items. Although it does state that resellers “. . . are not required to certify that those products meet the new lead limits. . . However, resellers cannot sell children’s products that exceed the lead limit and therefore should avoid products that are likely to have lead content. . .” If you like to purchase some of your child’s wardrobe at resell shops or consignment sales, there may be a few challenges in making that happen. I can understand not reselling an item that has been recalled for safety issues or what not but clothing and books. How are we to know what is safe unless we all start buying 100% cotton or other organic materials for our children’s clothing.

I still feel that this law is really focused on trying to change the standards in which items are made after the February 10th date, especially on retailers like Wal-Mart or Target who have a majority of overseas imports to stock their store shelves. Realistically not every parent in the US is going to log onto a web site to see what items have been recalled or to verify the lead level before making a purchase. For those of us who register our new children’s products once we get them home should be notified if for any reason there is a recall but probably will not be notified if the lead level is too high by government standards to resell. What do we do with all those products now? Ship them off to a landfill where it will take hundreds of years for it to decompose. As opposed to sending them on to a nice family who could use the product but maybe could not afford to purchase a brand new model.

Don’t get me wrong I am all about caring for my children and making their home environment the safest it can be but what about the environment they are growing up in. What will we leave behind for future generations? Will all of our natural resources be used up because of these types of laws? How will this law affect our economy?