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"...the kind of place where you can find a
lamp with a pintsize leather golf
Serving Montgomery County, MD since 1943
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Special Notice About Children's Clothes, Toys, and Other Items March 5, 2009 Effective immediately, the Montgomery County Thrift Ship is limiting the types of children's merchandise that we sell. We can no longer accept donations of some clothing and books (see below), toys, furniture, games, puzzles, strollers, etc. We are taking these steps as a good faith effort to comply with a recently enacted federal law and to protect the health and safety of our customers. What we can accept:
What we cannot accept:
Background information on the law as it affects thrift and consignment shops: On August 14, 2008, President Bush signed the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 (H.R. 4040, also known as "CPSIA"). The law places restrictions on the sale of �any consumer product designed or intended primarily for children 12 years of age or younger.� A major focus of the law is to prohibit the sale of children's clothing and toys that contain lead or phthalates above trace amounts. The lead requirements apply to used as well as new children's products. There are two main provisions of the law: 1) a prohibition against selling children's items that contain lead in concentrations greater than 600 parts per million beginning 2/10/09 and 2) a requirement that manufacturers and importers test, label, and certify children's items as meeting the lead standard. Thrift and other resale shops are not required to test their merchandise, but we are prohibited from selling items that surpass the lead standard. Testing is unfortunately the only way to be sure that an item meets the standard for lead. Since we can't afford to test our merchandise, our only way to comply with the law and protect our customers is to stop selling children's merchandise except those that are designated as "safe to sell" by CPSC. We are familiar with recent actions by CPSC to postpone some deadlines for testing/certification and to clarify the requirements for thrift shops and resellers. These do NOT change the requirement that our children's merchandise must not have lead concentrations higher than 600 parts per million. Thank you for your understanding. In the event that Congress or CPSC changes the requirements of the law as they apply to sellers of used merchandise, we will adjust our policies accordingly. For more information on CPSIA, please see the following websites: Consumer Product Safety Commission CPSIA Info Page NARTS summary of CPSIA requirements and concerns for thrift and resale shops Text and video of story on Channel 9 WUSA Wall Street Journal article on CPSIA's impact on thrift shops |
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