Kid’s ATV Industry Wants Toy Police to Allow Sales of Kid-Sized ATVs to Kids Without Testing for Lead Content

An onerous federal law called the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) prevents the sale of products to children unless the products and their component parts each pass an expensive test for lead that proves the products and their components lead content is below the stringent federal lead standard.  Many companies that used to produce children’s products or components used in children’s products have gone out of business because they cannot afford to pay for the expensive testing.  An industry that has been affected is the kids all terrain vehicle (ATV) industry.  The  Motorcycle Industry Council Wants Congress to amend the CPSIA to allow kid-sized ATVs to be sold without undergoing the expensive lead content tests.  The MIC produced a call to action video asking people to contact their Congressmen/women and Senators and ask them to exempt the sale of ATVs from the CPSIA’s lead content testing requirement.  The video gives three reasons for the exemption:

1. Use of kids ATVs is not dangerous nor does it create a health problem for children.  Experts say the amount of lead a child gets from contact with an ATV is less than a child gets from drinking a glass of water.
2. The CPSIA has the unintended consequence of causing parents to let their kids ride adult ATVs that are more dangerous and not size-appropriate for children because the parents cannot buy kid-size ATVs.
3. The CPSIA has caused a lot of people in the children’s ATV industry to lose their jobs.  MIC estimates that a complete ban on youth models will cause the industry to lose $1 billion a year.