So now we can add Melissa & Doug to the list of China recalled toys. Although you wouldn't know that by looking at their website. In August of 2008 Canada issued a recall of the "Geometric Stacker" by Melissa and Doug and in September 2008 Canada issued a recall of the "Stacking Train" by Melissa and Doug. Testing by Health Canada revealed that the surface paint on the toy contains barium in excess of the allowable limit.
Why is barium even present in a toy manufactures facility? What purpose does it have?? When I looked up Barium in Wikipedia I see it is used in glassmaking, rat poisions, used for drilling oil wells, it gives fireworks their green color, but no where could I find why it would be present on a WOODEN TOY FOR TODDLERS. If someone could explain to me, please do so.
So when are parents going to wake up and see that these Chinese manufactures do NOT have our children's best interest at heart. How many tainted toys are going to be enough for everyone to stop buying these products?? Maybe we need to change the word 'tainted' to something more accurate like 'potentially lethal', maybe that will get peoples attention.
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Saturday, December 13, 2008
Rave - Snowflake Lane in Bellevue Square
If you live in the Seattle/Bellevue area you have to go check out Snowflake Lane at Bellevue Square, it is fabulous fun for the whole family. It starts around 6:45 every night from now till Christmas Eve along the sidewalks of Bellevue Way and NE 8th at The Bellevue Collection. Rudolph, polar bears, Snow Princesses and toy soldiers on stilts walk around and give out lolly pops to the young and young at heart. Then at 7:00 out come the toy soldier drummers. Along both sides of the street on the side walk are drum platforms that the drummers stand on and drum to Christmas music. And the finale....snowfall. Yes you heard me, no matter what the weather it always snows on Snowflake Lane. It is a hoot!!
I found out about it because one of my nephews is one of the drummers this year. We ventured out to see him last weekend and had no idea how popular this was. I soon realized that my 747 sized stroller was not the thing to have as the people kept coming. My husband took baby girl to see if he could find his sister in law, he never found them but he did find one of the drummers.
I found out about it because one of my nephews is one of the drummers this year. We ventured out to see him last weekend and had no idea how popular this was. I soon realized that my 747 sized stroller was not the thing to have as the people kept coming. My husband took baby girl to see if he could find his sister in law, he never found them but he did find one of the drummers.
Rant - No Troll postcard to be found
We received Flat Stanley from a relative and so we decided to take him to the Troll in Fremont to take some pictures. Afterward we headed down to Fremont to look for a post card to send to the school. Could we find one?? NO. How can Fremont not have a post card of the Troll??
Thursday, December 11, 2008
End of small toy companies continued
Please read these two blogs. They explain what will happen in an easy to read format.
Greco Woodcrafting’s Weblog
The Smart Mama
Greco Woodcrafting’s Weblog
The Smart Mama
Rant - Score 1 for Mattel and Fisher Price, Score 0 for actual SAFE, QUALITY & EDUCATIONAL TOYS
I have stopped buying ANY toy that is made in China. For Christmas this year Santa is bringing baby girl the Chalet Doll House from PlanToys. It costs us a pretty penny and other than a few small items for her stocking, which are wooden figurines by Ostheimer, that is the extent of her Christmas. Well ok maybe a few books here and there, if I can find ones NOT made in China. Christmas is not a time to spoil our children with mass amounts of toys anyway. It is the Celebration of the birth of our Lord, something I am making sure my family remembers and celebrates. Next year I do not know what I am going to do.
See the United States Congress recently passed the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) requiring that all toys being imported to the US pass extensive testing fees of up to $4,000 per type of toy they make. They will also be required to permanently label each toy with a batch number and date. This will in most cases force the toy companies to recreate their molds.
So what does this mean for the little mom and pop businesses that sell wooden toys for a living? Well they will more than likely disappear. And probably no more SAHM or SAHDs selling handmade toys on etsy.com. Good quality wood, educational and Waldorf style toys are going to be even more expensive and harder to find.
One European company Selecta has already announced that after Dec 31, 2008 it will no longer be selling it's toys in America, how many more will follow?
So I want to say thank you to Mattel and Fisher-Price for having your toys made in China for lower costs and quality, which caused most of the recalls, all so you can make more money at my child's expense. And a big thank you to my Government for taking the choice away from me to buy my daughter good quality toys and leaving me with cheap, plastic crap from China.
I'm urging every American to read the following and write your Congressperson and Senator immediately!
Please read this from the Handmade Toy Alliance. You can also sign their online petition. And PLEASE, PLEASE pass this on to your family and friends.
And Honey you probably better start now making something for baby girl for next Christmas.
Help Save Handmade Toys in the USA from the CPSIA
The issue:
In 2007, large toy manufacturers who outsource their production to China and other developing countries violated the public’s trust. They were selling toys with dangerously high lead content, toys with unsafe small part, toys with improperly secured and easily swallowed small magnets, and toys made from chemicals that made kids sick. Almost every problem toy in 2007 was made in China.
The United States Congress rightly recognized that the Consumer Products Safety Commission (CPSC) lacked the authority and staffing to prevent dangerous toys from being imported into the US. So, they passed the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) in August, 2008. Among other things, the CPSIA bans lead and phthalates in toys, mandates third-party testing and certification for all toys and requires toy makers to permanently label each toy with a date and batch number.
All of these changes will be fairly easy for large, multinational toy manufacturers to comply with. Large manufacturers who make thousands of units of each toy have very little incremental cost to pay for testing and update their molds to include batch labels.
For small American, Canadian, and European toymakers, however, the costs of mandatroy testing will likely drive them out of business.
*A toymaker, for example, who makes wooden cars in his garage in Maine to supplement his income cannot afford the $4,000 fee per toy that testing labs are charging to assure compliance with the CPSIA.
*A work-at-home mom in Minnesota who makes dolls to sell at craft fairs must choose either to violate the law or cease operations.
*A small toy retailer in Vermont who imports wooden toys from Europe, which has long had stringent toy safety standards, must now pay for testing on every toy they import.
*And even the handful of larger toy makers who still employ workers in the United States face increased costs to comply with the CPSIA, even though American-made toys had nothing to do with the toy safety problems of 2007.
The CPSIA simply forgot to exclude the class of toys that have earned and kept the public’s trust: Toys made in the US, Canada, and Europe. The result, unless the law is modified, is that handmade toys will no longer be legal in the US.
If this law had been applied to the food industry, every farmers market in the country would be forced to close while Kraft and Dole prospered.
You can read our Proposal to Improve the CPSIA here.
How You can Help:
Please write to your United States Congress Person and Senator to request changes in the CPSIA to save handmade toys. Use our sample letter or write your own. You can find your State Representative here and Senator here.
NEWSFLASH FROM A NATURAL & EUROPEAN TOY IMPORTER
As many of you may have heard, the company Selecta has decided to pull out of the USA market effective Dec. 31st 2008. We need your help to make sure other quality companies are not forced to make similar decisions.
While we all applauded efforts by the federal government to tighten the safety standards for toys, we all got much more than we bargained for. The law that was passed extends to all products directed to children 12 years of age and younger, and includes such things as clothing & toys and much more, with very few exceptions or exemptions. That wouldn’t be so bad, but there are a few requirements that, if left as is, will force most small businesses (and many medium & large sized businesses) out of business….including retailers, work-at-home moms and independent crafters making products for children. The Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Protection will hold a hearing on Wednesday, December 10, 2008, at 10:00 a.m. in room 2123 Rayburn House Office Building. The hearing is entitled “Implementation of the CPSIA: Urgent Questions about Application Dates, Testing and Certification, and Protecting Children.” This is an oversight hearing examining implementation of Public Law 110-314 (H.R. 4040, the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA)). Witnesses will be by invitation only.
The staff briefing for this hearing will be held on Monday, December 8, 2008, at 4:00 p.m. in room 2322 Rayburn House Office Building. 3.
1. Existing Inventory: The law states that any affected product that does not meet the new standard (with the exception of phthalates) cannot be sold from the shelves after February 10th. The problem is that the law includes many new items that have not been under a previous regulation, and have not been tested. To test these items now, on the retail or wholesale level is prohibitively expensive, and/or simply not possible. So it is very difficult to confirm compliance (although most items in most companies would be compliant), and at the same time, penalties for selling anything that doesn’t meet the standard are very stiff.
2. 3rd Party Testing by SKU: The law will require 3rd party testing in the future for each sku (or style). The large pair of jeans have to be tested separately from the medium size of jeans…even though all materials are the same. This makes testing prohibitively (impossibly) expensive. There are other ways to form a testing regimen and be just as satisfied with the results.
3. Markings: All products manufactured after August 12th, 2009 must have markings on the package and permanent markings on the product indicating where, by whom, and when the product was made. Large corporations can afford purchasing multiple dies to do this. Small companies cannot. European companies with limited sales to the USA likewise cannot.
4. Complexity: The law is extremely complex. Needlessly so. It is requiring companies to hire lawyers just to get a grasp of what is required of them. Also, the requirement of including certificates of compliance of each product shipped, with each product is overly burdensome. Electronic certificates has been approved, and will help, but even then there is a substantial cost to the additional administration—which does very little, if anything, to improve the safety of our toys.
5. Frequency of Testing: Experts are still trying to get a clear grasp of this. However, it is very possible that each batch must be tested/certified. This is fine for large companies running 10,000 or 100,000 pieces per batch. For small manufacturers, with small runs, it multiplies the enormous cost from point #2, even higher.
What this means is small, innovative companies that typically make niche products, will be forced out of business, or forced to narrow their product range and sell to the mass market. Product availability and selection will diminish. We will be primarily left with imported plastic toys from China. Yes, quite ironic isn’t it.
URGENT Action:
The Subcommitte that put this law together is meeting to review its implementation on Wednesday. We need to send a message to them to revise the law or its implementation in ways that will maintain the integrity of the safety standards, but will not decimate the children’s natural products market. Here is a link to the list of Committee Members. Please contact your Representative of Congress. If any one of these Representatives on the Subcommittee is YOUR representative, PLEASE be sure to call & email them to voice your concerns about the provisions in the law as they affect you and the children’s products industry in general. Please do this as soon as you are able.
Here is a link to some suggestions for talking to our representatives from WAHM Solutions.
What else can you do? Pass this on in your e-newsletters, in your stores, among your friends. There is much disinformation in the market, and it is up to us to warn consumers and colleagues of the pending disappearance of the natural & specialty toys we have come to rely on in the recent years.
This is a critical time to raise our voices and be heard. Important issues that affect us will be discussed in a public way next week…NOT after Christmas.
What else can you do? Join the Handmade Toy Alliance, join the online community cpsia-central and become informed & involved. Contact the media, discuss this in forums and in your own online communities. It isn’t just small businesses that are at risk, it is the very nature of the toys & products our children & grandchildren will have access to in the future.
See the United States Congress recently passed the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) requiring that all toys being imported to the US pass extensive testing fees of up to $4,000 per type of toy they make. They will also be required to permanently label each toy with a batch number and date. This will in most cases force the toy companies to recreate their molds.
So what does this mean for the little mom and pop businesses that sell wooden toys for a living? Well they will more than likely disappear. And probably no more SAHM or SAHDs selling handmade toys on etsy.com. Good quality wood, educational and Waldorf style toys are going to be even more expensive and harder to find.
One European company Selecta has already announced that after Dec 31, 2008 it will no longer be selling it's toys in America, how many more will follow?
So I want to say thank you to Mattel and Fisher-Price for having your toys made in China for lower costs and quality, which caused most of the recalls, all so you can make more money at my child's expense. And a big thank you to my Government for taking the choice away from me to buy my daughter good quality toys and leaving me with cheap, plastic crap from China.
I'm urging every American to read the following and write your Congressperson and Senator immediately!
Please read this from the Handmade Toy Alliance. You can also sign their online petition. And PLEASE, PLEASE pass this on to your family and friends.
And Honey you probably better start now making something for baby girl for next Christmas.
Help Save Handmade Toys in the USA from the CPSIA
The issue:
In 2007, large toy manufacturers who outsource their production to China and other developing countries violated the public’s trust. They were selling toys with dangerously high lead content, toys with unsafe small part, toys with improperly secured and easily swallowed small magnets, and toys made from chemicals that made kids sick. Almost every problem toy in 2007 was made in China.
The United States Congress rightly recognized that the Consumer Products Safety Commission (CPSC) lacked the authority and staffing to prevent dangerous toys from being imported into the US. So, they passed the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) in August, 2008. Among other things, the CPSIA bans lead and phthalates in toys, mandates third-party testing and certification for all toys and requires toy makers to permanently label each toy with a date and batch number.
All of these changes will be fairly easy for large, multinational toy manufacturers to comply with. Large manufacturers who make thousands of units of each toy have very little incremental cost to pay for testing and update their molds to include batch labels.
For small American, Canadian, and European toymakers, however, the costs of mandatroy testing will likely drive them out of business.
*A toymaker, for example, who makes wooden cars in his garage in Maine to supplement his income cannot afford the $4,000 fee per toy that testing labs are charging to assure compliance with the CPSIA.
*A work-at-home mom in Minnesota who makes dolls to sell at craft fairs must choose either to violate the law or cease operations.
*A small toy retailer in Vermont who imports wooden toys from Europe, which has long had stringent toy safety standards, must now pay for testing on every toy they import.
*And even the handful of larger toy makers who still employ workers in the United States face increased costs to comply with the CPSIA, even though American-made toys had nothing to do with the toy safety problems of 2007.
The CPSIA simply forgot to exclude the class of toys that have earned and kept the public’s trust: Toys made in the US, Canada, and Europe. The result, unless the law is modified, is that handmade toys will no longer be legal in the US.
If this law had been applied to the food industry, every farmers market in the country would be forced to close while Kraft and Dole prospered.
You can read our Proposal to Improve the CPSIA here.
How You can Help:
Please write to your United States Congress Person and Senator to request changes in the CPSIA to save handmade toys. Use our sample letter or write your own. You can find your State Representative here and Senator here.
NEWSFLASH FROM A NATURAL & EUROPEAN TOY IMPORTER
As many of you may have heard, the company Selecta has decided to pull out of the USA market effective Dec. 31st 2008. We need your help to make sure other quality companies are not forced to make similar decisions.
While we all applauded efforts by the federal government to tighten the safety standards for toys, we all got much more than we bargained for. The law that was passed extends to all products directed to children 12 years of age and younger, and includes such things as clothing & toys and much more, with very few exceptions or exemptions. That wouldn’t be so bad, but there are a few requirements that, if left as is, will force most small businesses (and many medium & large sized businesses) out of business….including retailers, work-at-home moms and independent crafters making products for children. The Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Protection will hold a hearing on Wednesday, December 10, 2008, at 10:00 a.m. in room 2123 Rayburn House Office Building. The hearing is entitled “Implementation of the CPSIA: Urgent Questions about Application Dates, Testing and Certification, and Protecting Children.” This is an oversight hearing examining implementation of Public Law 110-314 (H.R. 4040, the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA)). Witnesses will be by invitation only.
The staff briefing for this hearing will be held on Monday, December 8, 2008, at 4:00 p.m. in room 2322 Rayburn House Office Building. 3.
1. Existing Inventory: The law states that any affected product that does not meet the new standard (with the exception of phthalates) cannot be sold from the shelves after February 10th. The problem is that the law includes many new items that have not been under a previous regulation, and have not been tested. To test these items now, on the retail or wholesale level is prohibitively expensive, and/or simply not possible. So it is very difficult to confirm compliance (although most items in most companies would be compliant), and at the same time, penalties for selling anything that doesn’t meet the standard are very stiff.
2. 3rd Party Testing by SKU: The law will require 3rd party testing in the future for each sku (or style). The large pair of jeans have to be tested separately from the medium size of jeans…even though all materials are the same. This makes testing prohibitively (impossibly) expensive. There are other ways to form a testing regimen and be just as satisfied with the results.
3. Markings: All products manufactured after August 12th, 2009 must have markings on the package and permanent markings on the product indicating where, by whom, and when the product was made. Large corporations can afford purchasing multiple dies to do this. Small companies cannot. European companies with limited sales to the USA likewise cannot.
4. Complexity: The law is extremely complex. Needlessly so. It is requiring companies to hire lawyers just to get a grasp of what is required of them. Also, the requirement of including certificates of compliance of each product shipped, with each product is overly burdensome. Electronic certificates has been approved, and will help, but even then there is a substantial cost to the additional administration—which does very little, if anything, to improve the safety of our toys.
5. Frequency of Testing: Experts are still trying to get a clear grasp of this. However, it is very possible that each batch must be tested/certified. This is fine for large companies running 10,000 or 100,000 pieces per batch. For small manufacturers, with small runs, it multiplies the enormous cost from point #2, even higher.
What this means is small, innovative companies that typically make niche products, will be forced out of business, or forced to narrow their product range and sell to the mass market. Product availability and selection will diminish. We will be primarily left with imported plastic toys from China. Yes, quite ironic isn’t it.
URGENT Action:
The Subcommitte that put this law together is meeting to review its implementation on Wednesday. We need to send a message to them to revise the law or its implementation in ways that will maintain the integrity of the safety standards, but will not decimate the children’s natural products market. Here is a link to the list of Committee Members. Please contact your Representative of Congress. If any one of these Representatives on the Subcommittee is YOUR representative, PLEASE be sure to call & email them to voice your concerns about the provisions in the law as they affect you and the children’s products industry in general. Please do this as soon as you are able.
Here is a link to some suggestions for talking to our representatives from WAHM Solutions.
What else can you do? Pass this on in your e-newsletters, in your stores, among your friends. There is much disinformation in the market, and it is up to us to warn consumers and colleagues of the pending disappearance of the natural & specialty toys we have come to rely on in the recent years.
This is a critical time to raise our voices and be heard. Important issues that affect us will be discussed in a public way next week…NOT after Christmas.
What else can you do? Join the Handmade Toy Alliance, join the online community cpsia-central and become informed & involved. Contact the media, discuss this in forums and in your own online communities. It isn’t just small businesses that are at risk, it is the very nature of the toys & products our children & grandchildren will have access to in the future.
Tuesday, December 09, 2008
Rave - Clover Toys
I just discovered another great toy store in Ballard. It's called Clover Toys. There was so much great stuff I don't know where to begin. I went there looking for a wool felt kit by Woolpets. It is not a huge store but I think baby girl and I were in there for an hour and a half, at least.
They carry Ostheimer figures. These are great wood toys for children, very durable and it allows them to use their imagination.
They have a wonderful selection of books, including the How to books (that's what I call them) by Munro Leaf How to Behave and Why, Reading Can Be Fun, etc.
They also have a cute little craft section with felting kits, wool felt and roving.
Wood puzzles, Haba toys, Kathe Krause, Plan Toys are some of the toy companies they carry.
Go check them out!
They carry Ostheimer figures. These are great wood toys for children, very durable and it allows them to use their imagination.
They have a wonderful selection of books, including the How to books (that's what I call them) by Munro Leaf How to Behave and Why, Reading Can Be Fun, etc.
They also have a cute little craft section with felting kits, wool felt and roving.
Wood puzzles, Haba toys, Kathe Krause, Plan Toys are some of the toy companies they carry.
Go check them out!
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