Open Letter to the members of th

Open Letter to the members of the 111^th United States Congress

1/28/2009

To the Distinguished Members of the 111^th Congress:

The Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 (CPSIA) provides an important foundation in the quest to protect our nations’ children from potentially harmful products; but it does so at the risk of devastation to a large number of retail, manufacturing and import businesses throughout the country.

In 2007, after hearing the news of toy recall, after toy recall, due to elevated levels of Lead, my wife and I were gravely concerned for the health and safety of our children. There was no place where parents could turn, to find out if some horrible poison was lurking in the toys our children played with. This concern led us, along with my brother, to start a business. The goal of our business was to use the latest available technology to provide parents and business owners with a way of acquiring this previously unattainable knowledge. What was in the products they bought and sold?

From the start, it has also been our vision to do what we can to help bring about a future where businesses like ours are no longer a necessity; where parents can trust that all the products their children encounter are free from health hazards like lead and other toxic materials.

The CPSIA gives parents the first nation-wide improvement in the regulation of children’s products in many years. It imposes strict standards on the levels of lead for all products marketed to children. I, as a parent, applaud this new effort and only hope that in the future, even stricter standards are applied and additional toxins (such as Cadmium, Mercury, and Arsenic) are regulated.

The strength of the new law is a great start, but is hindered by restrictive product testing requirements imposed on retailers, manufacturers and importers. The CPSIA requires these businesses use a testing standard known as ASTM F963. This standard utilizes an essentially destructive method of testing which uses acid to breakdown a product sample to determine amount of lead present. One specific testing method of ASTM F963 is called Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectroscopy (ICP-MS). The cost of ICP-MS testing can range from $100 to $300 per test (most items require multiple tests) and could take days or weeks to get final results. This testing restriction imposes tremendous financial and time burden for businesses, especially on smaller ones, attempting to meet CPSIA compliance. Ironically, many of these smaller businesses compete with the larger chains by offering parents a natural or “green” choice when it comes to children’s products.

To understand this financial burden: imagine you ran a small children’s retail operation in your hometown. You do much of your business online and most of your products are handmade by you, your friends, and neighbors. You sell enough to make a decent living for your family and to keep some of your friends and neighbors employed at least part time. The CPSIA now requires you to do multiple tests on each of your product lines (each color and material used should be tested) costing you hundreds; if notthousands of dollars to test what could be a $15 product. Most, if not all, of your profit could easily be lost to testing. Now as a business owner, you are forced to make a choice: severely limit your product line to reduce total testing cost (and with that, a great deal of your market allure), import products from overseas from a manufacturer that can provide you with a testing certificate (but you’ll have to fire your friends and you’ll have little control over the quality of the product you sell), break the law (and possibly get fined and lose the respect of your customers), or go out of business.

The CPSIA, while well intentioned, restricts businesses from using newer, faster, equally accurate, and much less expensive technologies such as X-ray Florescence (XRF). An XRF analyzer uses a very low power X-ray to identify the elemental makeup of any item place in front of it. XRF can provide the same level of information as ATSM F963, but at a fraction of the cost; between $2 and $10 per test. XRF is already the accepted standard technology used for HUD lead paint inspections for homes and other structure, but it is not approved within the CPSIA for regulated consumer product testing. Not only is XRF less expensive, it is non-destructive. Non-destructive testing is absolutely vital to certain types of businesses such as handmade or One of a Kind (OOAK) manufacturers. Destructive testing can literally destroy these small company’s inventories. The lower cost and shorter time required for XRF testing not only alleviates the financial burden facing businesses, it allows them to do more complete testing of the products they sell.

XRF technology also can provide one large additional advantage. XRF Analyzers are mobile (handheld) and can be utilized, by a trained professional, on location, right in the retail store or manufacturing facility. This means there exists a great potential for new job creation in the area of CPSIA compliance testing. XRF Analyzer training can be done in a matter of days and once trained; a tester, with the right equipment and software, can perform up to 60 tests an hour. Thousands of new jobs could be created just to ensure compliance with the existing law. Alternatively, ASTM F963 testing procedures using ICP-MS (as currently mandated by the CPSIA) can only be done within a fixed laboratory setting using large, very expensive machines that provide minimal job creation potential.

In the past several weeks, our company has received numerous, sometimes frantic emails and phone calls from caring, small business owners located around the country with questions about the CPSIA and its compliance requirements. Most of these entrepreneurs are concerned with the potential cost of testing their products. From a stay at home mom in Pennsylvania who makes custom baby accessories, to a small shop in Montana which sells handmade children’s clothing, these creative business owners, not only want to abide by the law, they praise its purpose. At a time when our country faces overwhelming financial challenges to both consumers and business owners, these are the types of people we, as a nation, should be supporting. XRF offers us the opportunity to keep these valuable contributors to our nation’s economy in business and also provides the additional benefit of increased employment opportunities around the country.

I, and the co-signers of this letter, ask you, our representatives, to re-examine the testing methods approved within the CPSIA. We request you amend the CPSIA to include XRF as an approved testing technology. If used in combination with the current standard, we can help businesses reduce overall testing costs, avoid potential failure, and create new sources of employment.

Please help the affected businesses provide parents with quality, safety and choice in the products they produce for our children.

Thank you very much,

Arin Goldberg

CEO

Environmental Services & Solutions (Essco)

www.essco-safetycheck.com

Seth Goldberg

President

Environmental Services & Solutions (Essco)

www.essco-safetycheck.com

Jessica Hickey

Owner