WWA Info Exchange

I'm sure that all of you by now have heard of this ruling which requires the testing of all paint finishes and some materials used on toys for kids under 12. As toymakers for "Toys for Tots", this law really impacts us. (See the current issue of Wood Magazine for an update on this law, Issue 199, Sept. 2010, Pg. 84) For those of you who make"Toys for Tots" or other groups, how are you able to work around this law or are you?

Thanks for your comments for a work-a-round if you have one.

I believe that we need to involve ourselves with this issue.

Larry

I read somewhere, may have been in that issue, that as woodworkers making toys we can get information from product manufactures i.e. finishes etc. that they have to provide as far as lead content in their products goes. If we have that information we are good to go.

I will look for the article I read and if I find it I will post a link to it.

Bill

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Amateur Bill
O'Fallon, MO
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If a man speaks in the forest, and no woman hears him, is he still wrong?

I'm in shape, round is a shape.

Bill, that information is in this month's WOOD Magazine. There's info in an article and also closer to the front of the magazine (maybe an editor's note or something like that).

Verna

Thanks Verna, now I don't have to look for it.

Bill

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Amateur Bill
O'Fallon, MO
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If a man speaks in the forest, and no woman hears him, is he still wrong?

I'm in shape, round is a shape.

All manufacturers of paints, solvents, cleaners, etc. are required to provide Material Safety Data Sheets for their products. You should be able to find the data by manufacturer and product here:
http://www.msdssearch.com/

Ken

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I still have all 10 fingers, well, 9 1/2, but who's counting.

This is a sticky one...

I wrote an article about this for my blog in December and I got rapped on the knuckles about it.

Basically, no finishes in the US contain lead. However, the CPSC wants samples of production run pieces analyzed by an independent lab for confirmation that everything is cool.

That's great for manufacturers, but where does it leave groups and individual woodworkers?

Well, as an individual giving toys and other kid stuff away, I was nearly laughed off the phone by a CPSC rep. No one is breaking into your home to arrest you for building a toy for a nephew.

Now, for large groups building, well, things get a little hairier. The wood project is not the concern, so if you build unfinished toys, you are good to go. If you use an 'approved' finish such as shellac, you are good to go (Shellac got an exemption).

For a film building finish, however, you may still need to take a representative copy and the MSDS sheet to a lab to get one approved. I believe the cost is about $100 for the test.

Of course all of this goes out the window if you are a company building toys... the regulations are more strenuous...

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Hi all,
Thank you for your replies. As Tom stated, this is a sticky issue and it aint gettin no better...
I've pulled MSDS sheets from two (2) different paint companies and found that on both, the information submitted was provided by the manufacturers themselves. According to this new law, all products must be tested by an independent testing lab, (a third party) and neither of the companies I spoke with have done that nor at this time do they intend to do it. So that makes the paint unusable for these projects. As far as Shellac goes, it is a natural product that in fact is used to make candy shiny, therefore edible. Hence, its exclusion. Looks like it might be shellac or 'nutin. Bare wood toys in the hands of kids opens the door all types of bacteria growth, etc, not that kids could pass anything around...

Again, thank you all for your replies. We're gonna have to find some way to work this out.

Larry

Sometimes I think the regulators go a little overboard on stuff like this. I chewed on my share of lead paint, played with mercury, breathed asbestos and various other chemicals such as MEK, etc. and I'm ok ... ok....ok.. ok.

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I bring to life, I bring to death:
The spirit does but mean the breath:
I know no more. (Tennyson, In Memoriam)

Gene,

Didn't we all ???

Larry

Yup how did we survive as children?
No childseats in cars, no helmet when bikeriding, casted armys of soliders made of melted lead, spray painted our mopeds without face masks, and build speed boats out of polyester in the wood shed without ventilation...
Yup, how did we survive?
/Anders

Apparently we didn't. I even had a (GASP ) Radium dial watch and a (God forbid! ) CHEMISTRY set, among other interesting and currently forbidden articles. And I still fondly remember the fun of rocketing down a steep grassy slope on a piece of cardboard, throwing fire crackers at the neighbors bull and playing superman off the roof.

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I bring to life, I bring to death:
The spirit does but mean the breath:
I know no more. (Tennyson, In Memoriam)

LARRY SALLEE: I have made toys and other "holiday type" items for friends and family and have used food colorings from the grocery store for color on bare wood. I've never mixed the food color with any finish like shellac so I don't know if that would work. I've thought about EASTER EGG colors to do that also. I suspect that the colors could be made liquid with alcohol as well as water thus being compatible with say super blond shellac

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Everything was new once.
newtooth 311
Rochester, MN

These type of comments do little to enhance the focus of the thread, none the less, I can't resist -

I remember as a little kid how 'interesting' gasoline smelled in spite of my mother's admonishions. There was one street on a a hill in the little town where I lived in Nebraska that would turn into a sheet of ice in the winter. No idea what speed we approached by the time we hit the bottom on our sleds. Grampa used to let me ride on the seat of the mower as he towed it behind the tractor mowing hay. When I was maybe six years old.

I doubt if any of us would care to see even one child suffer from the follies of adults. Yes, we have to make toy and children's furniture safe for their use. But I think parents share some of the burden for making responsible choices and monitoring their children's behavior. We simply can't legislate responibility.

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Nullum Gratuitum Prandium

Cheers - Dennis

Hi All,
Did some more research and it seems that one of the paint companies that I contacted has done the required testing for its paints but the representatives I spoke with apparently were unaware of it, or the statute. That company is Rust-oleum. Check this site:
http://zinnser.com/CBGCorporate.asp?sn=gu&sn2=cc
for the code information. You can also print a copy of the certification for you or your woodworking club's records from their other linked site.
Thanks again for all your input. As of now, we are good to go !!!

Larry

Used to ride my bicycle behind the DDT truck (That explains alot! ) but I wouldn't let my kids do it.

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"To all those who work come moments of beauty unseen by the rest of the world." Norman Maclean