• Allison Miles •
• Originally published January 10, 2009 at 5:16 p.m., updated January 10, 2009 at 5:16 p.m.

Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free. - inscription on the Statue of Liberty written by Emma Lazarus

 

We can safely say that the majority of Americans were incensed by the lack of regulation on "goods" from China. What, with lead, melamine and a myriad of other transgressions, we should be mad.

So, last year, it was our ready-to-please congressional lawmakers who passed stricter standards for lead in products and the selling of recalled products. Those new standards go into effect Feb. 10.

It's clichéd, but we think this reaction was "feel-good" legislation, sort of a knee-jerk response to the problem. The standards certainly did not take into consideration the huge business that resale shops and non-profits thrive on in America. And it didn't take into consideration the thousands of consumers who can afford low-cost products only.

There are thousands of church resale shops, and there are outlets for the homeless, like the Salvation Army and Good Will, that may be negatively affected.

These same resale shops cannot afford the cost of testing inventory for meeting the standard. So they are faced with discarding the merchandise to meet the standard, or they will have to close and cease selling the products.

As Encore Resale Shoppe owner Jennifer Henry told Advocate reporter Allison Miles, "I can't imagine them walking into my store and saying everything in here has to be done away with." Henry said the new standard doesn't make sense.

We think a postponement of the standard should be implemented for American resale shops and entities that sell used clothes and goods.

According to the Wall Street Journal online of Jan. 8, "The thrift-store problem underscores the challenges of implementing new regulations with limited damage to the industries the government is actually trying to improve. Congress passed new laws . after a string of high-profile recalls involving dangerous toys and other children's products."

We think this new standard should be reviewed and made better by taking into consideration all of the consumers of these goods. In the meantime, we would like to see an exception made for resale and thrift shop entities by Feb. 9.

 

This editorial reflects the views of the Victoria Advocate's editorial board.

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