This makes me so mad! re:CPSIA

I cannot believe that due to the law passed by The Consumer Product Safety Commission all resale shops will have to throw away all childrens clothing collected prior to Feb 10, 2009 unless they pay HUGE fees to have the items tested for contaminates.

The law, aimed at keeping lead-filled merchandise away from children, mandates that all products sold for those age 12 and younger -- including clothing -- be tested for lead and phthalates, which are chemicals used to make plastics more pliable. Those that haven't been tested will be considered hazardous, regardless of whether they actually contain lead.

I totally get that in the light of all of the lead contamination in the last few years that we should all be more aware of what we allow near our children. I get it. But I also think that it's a little late and a lot wasteful to destroy clothes that have already been worn and prevent them from being worn again.

I would like to see the statistics that say how many children have been harmed from contaminated clothing. I want to see the numbers that justifies this enormous, gigantic, unmeasurably huge squandering of resources. Because that's what this is. I can't even wrap my mind around the wastefulness our government is dictating with this way too broad of a law. Sadly, I think it's just par for the course when it comes to bureaucracy.

ARTICLE

Consumer Product Safety Improvemement Act

ETA: Thank you DJ ezP. With your statistics in the comments section I was able to research a bit further and found an article from USA Today which states that the significant decrease in elevated lead levels in children is largely due to the 1978 banning of lead paint and the phasing out of lead in gasoline in 1975.

The article indicates that continued lead contamination is in housing built prior to 1978 with existing lead paint still in the home - and more specifically lead paint on windows - is the cause of the majority of the elevated lead levels in children tested.

In the early 1990s, Milwaukee pioneered a technique for making homes lead-safe. While it includes stabilizing paint on walls, porches and other surfaces, it primarily focuses on replacing windows or repairing them by shaving down the wood and repainting it, then covering the inside of the frame with vinyl or aluminum.

The city pays homeowners $160 a window to repair or replace them — an offer extended to landlords, too, unless a child in their building turns up with elevated blood lead. Then the landlord must pay the costs; if he fixes that property, he's eligible for city aid for other properties.

"That's kind of when they really see the light," says Sara Mishefske of the Milwaukee Health Department. If a landlord refuses to do the work, the city can get a court order to do it and bill him.

By all indications, the program has been a success. In 1995, 39% of city kids had elevated blood lead; by 2006, it was down to 6.6%. Total cost: $53.5 million — about two-thirds of it from federal grants.

Walking through a home undergoing window replacement, city lead inspector A. Thomas Brandt says the focus on windows makes sense. "It's cost-effective, it does the job. It gives us the biggest bang for our buck," he says. "Ninety-nine times out of 100, the child is poisoned by this window."

He's backed up by years of research showing that opening and closing windows generates enough lead-paint dust to poison children decades after the paint was applied. (Lead helped paint adhere better and last longer.)

"It's like a lead-dust machine, even 40, 50, 100 years after the lead was put into those windows," says )Rick Nevin, a Fairfax, Va., economist who has done extensive research on lead's role in rising crime rates. Windows, he says, are "a huge part of the problem."

I'm confused how lead paint in a home translates to throwing away ALL childrens clothing made prior to Feb 10. I'm going to have to think on that one for a while to find a correlation. I'll get back with you.
ARTICLE FROM USA TODAY

More ETA:
I checked the CDC website to see how many clothing recalls there have been due to elevated lead levels. Nine. Nine recalls in almost 12 years. Nine.
CDC RECALLS