Donated Goods Coalition - Consumer Product Safety
The Problem: On August 14, 2008, President George W. Bush signed the CPSIA, thus enacting new limits for lead content in children’s products, including children’s clothing. Provisions in the CPSIA were intended to create a safety net of protections for low-income and affluent children alike, a goal that Goodwill Industries International and its local member agencies wholeheartedly agrees with.
Starting on February 10, 2009, products intended for distribution and sale in the United States are required to be tested by a third-party tester. In order to prevent children from being exposed to dangerous lead levels, products that comply with the new standards are to be certified and labeled accordingly to ease consumers’ ability to verify products that are CPSIA compliant. Also effective on February 10, CPSIA prohibits the sale of products that exceed the CPSIA’s new standards, including products manufactured long before the CPSIA was enacted.
Unfortunately, the question of how the CPSA will apply the CPSIA to “resellers” has created a great deal of confusion and concern among the community of nonprofit social service providers, such as Goodwill, that support their mission by selling donated goods in thrift stores. The CPSC has confirmed that the law’s testing requirements do not apply to resellers. However, without guidance from the CPSC, the only way that our store operators can be 100-percent certain that children’s products manufactured prior to the CPSIA’s enactment do not exceed the CPSIA’s new standards would be to dispose of ALL children’s products as banned hazardous substances.