Guidance for Retailers and Resellers of Children’s Products, including Thrift Stores, Consignment Shops and Charities

No, you are not required to test. However, retailers and resellers (including those who sell on auction Web sites) cannot knowingly sell children’s products that do not meet the requirements of the law. You can protect yourself by screening for violative products. But more importantly, as a business person, you do not want to be selling products that have the potential to cause harm to anyone, especially a child. Sellers should avoid products likely to have lead, phthalates, or do not meet mandatory toy standards (see Table C for a list of commonly sold goods).

It is now against the law to sell a recalled product. Remember to check the list of recalled products on the CPSC Web site as a number of children’s products have been recalled.

Resellers, in particular, need to make sound business decisions about the products they sell. As a practical matter, you must either:

• Test the product;



• Refuse to accept or sell the product, which will mean disposing of it if you already have it in your inventory;



• Use your best judgment based on your knowledge of the product; or



• Contact the manufacturer about questionable products.

It would make sense to test, rather than discard, any suspect children’s products that have a high resale value. You may want to hire a qualified, trained person in your area who can quickly screen all of your suspect products with a handheld device called an X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) machine.

You should not rely on commercially sold lead testing kits. CPSC staff have determined that the kits are prone to give “false positive” or “false negative” results.

Table C: Commonly Resold Children’s Products and Materials

As with lead, you are not required to test your products for phthalates or to certify that they do not contain prohibited phthalates. There is no easy way to tell whether a product contains a phthalate or what kind of phthalate it contains. Unlike lead where there is a reliable screening tool (the X-ray Fluorescence machine), there is not yet a screening device to detect the presence of phthalates.

Be wary of certain products: very soft vinyl or plastic toys (excluding latex or silicone), or other children’s products where the plastic is soft enough to enable an infant to grasp it more readily, may contain phthalates. Your safest course is not to sell or accept these products unless you know they don’t contain phthalates.

Yes. Used vintage children’s books and other children’s products sold as collector’s items would not be primarily intended for children. Because of their value and age, they would not be expected to be used by children. Therefore, they do not fall into the definition of children’s product and do not need to comply with the lead limits.

No. The lead limits in the CPSIA only apply to products intended or designed primarily for children 12 and under. The lead limits apply only to those bikes which by nature of their size, design or other similar factors indicate that they are intended or designed primarily for children. Thus, a bike with a 24” wheel size or smaller would generally be considered a children’s bike and would need to comply.

The Commission’s response to a violation of the law varies depending upon the circumstances, including the nature of the product defect, the number of products, the severity of the risk of injury associated with the product and the type of violation. The Commission’s goal is to help you to avoid future violations and protect your customers, not to put you out of business.