New U.S. Safety Regulations to Eliminate Sale of Used Children's Products

If you are a parent concerned about your child's safety, and especially one living on a tight family budget, read on. You may be concerned to learn your ability to purchase second-hand children's items from your local thrift store may soon be a thing of the past. This would include all baby items, children's clothing and shoes as well as used children's toys.

According to Adele Meyer, executive director of the National Association of Resale and Thrift Shops, "They'll all have to go to the landfill." She was quoted in a Los Angeles Times article by Alana Semuels earlier this week expressing her concern about the future of used children's clothing sales. Read the full LA Times article here.

The Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 is the newly enacted U.S. government's safety regulations scheduled to take effect on February 10, 2009. Once enforcement takes effect, the new safety regulations will cause thousands of thrift store owners to throw their inventories of children's clothing and other used children's items away. Many used clothing retailers that sell children's clothing fear they will be forced to close their doors and declare bankruptcy.

Parents who consign their children's outgrown clothing at retail consignment shops are also concerned they may no longer be able to do so. They will end up loosing this source of additional income to their family's clothing budget.

Could this be a case of over-protective government regulations gone too far? You decide. . .

The Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 is posted here.

The Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 was passed by the U.S. Congress last year in response to widespread product recalls of items felt to pose a danger to children. These recalled items included Chinese toys contaminated with lead or lead-based paint. The Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 also reauthorized and modernized the Consumer Product Safety Commission.