Making Sense of the CPSIA New Guidelines (Children's Jewelry)

After mulling over all the documentation contained in the Consumer Safety Product Commission's (CPSC) new guidelines called The Consumer Safety Product Improvement Act of 2008 (CPSIA) in regards to specific designers and handmade items, I'd like to present some specific facts about jewelry made for children. A child, according to the CPSIA is defined as any person 12 and under. These new proposed guidelines are for the metal parts (findings and chain, hardware etc) in jewelry as well as any paint that is applied to the jewelry.

The way it stands now, if this legislation goes through, any jewelry made for children (after a designated date) would need to have a TOTAL of less than 600 parts per million (ppm) of lead. This is a TOTAL of all the parts and/or paint combined.

Over the next three years, the lead level guidelines will then be gradually be lowered.
The timeline looks like this:
Feb. 10, 2009: a total of 600 ppm or under
Aug. 14, 2009: a total of 300 ppm or under
Aug. 14, 2011: a total of 100 ppm of under*
(*100 ppm unless the CPSC says they can't technologically measure lead in that amount)

The CPSIA legislation makes no diferentiation between WAHM designers, or huge mass producers in any of this legislation.

ALL jewelry for children that will be for sale will need to be tested for lead by a third party, CPSC approved laboratory. It must be found to be under the level of lead at that time. If not, it will be considered "contraband". The list of approved third party labs will be available on the CPSC's website. In their documentation, they provided extensive guidelines for who will and who will not be eligible to be considered as a 3rd party lab and notes to the labs on how to properly test for lead.

More to come in this series soon. . .
Please post questions/concerns/comments about children's jewelry and these new proposed guidelines and legislation here. Note: Designer Y is awaiting a phone call and email back from a contact at the CPSC.