Photo by Graham Cullen Jennifer Knill looks through a rack of clothes at Lucy’s Consignments for Kids and Moms-to-Be in Mount Pleasant on Thursday. Knill, from Fairfield, Pa., drives to Lucy’s to sell and buy clothes for her children. She has already called to complain to her congressional representative about the new law that curbs the sale of used children’s clothing without lead testing.

If enforced as written, the new law would have far-reaching economic implications, putting consignment shops out of business and exacerbating a depressed economic climate, several business owners said Thursday.

The rash of recalls in 2007 due to inadequate product testing resulted in new legislation intended to enforce tougher testing requirements and lower acceptable limits of lead and phthalates.

The law will prohibit the sale of any used clothing or merchandise for children under 12 that has not been tested and labeled in accordance with new standards.

Baird said she initially dismissed the report as false. But since she realized the law was real, she vowed not to go down without a fight.

She and other consignment shop owners launched a letter-writing campaign to the federal Consumer Product Safety Commission and congressional leaders.

"The immediate implication of this bill is that all children's consignment shops would be shuttered immediately," said Baird, owner of two Lucy's Consignment shops, in Frederick and Mount Airy .

Jennifer Guenther, CEO of Enkore Kids LLC in Boonsboro, joined the fight to save thousands of American businesses.

"Both as a mom and a children's business owner, I applauded the bill when it passed as I understood it then," Guenther said.

The fierce response from consignment shop owners prompted a clarification on Thursday afternoon from the Consumer Product Safety Commission, which said in a press release that consignment shop owners do not have to pay for lead testing and are not required to certify that those products meet the new lead limits.

"The new law requires that domestic manufacturers and importers certify that children's products made after Feb. 10 meet all the new safety standards and the lead ban," the report stated.

"Sellers of used children's products, such as thrift stores and consignment stores, are not required to certify that those products meet the new lead limits, phthalates standard or new toy standards.

"The new safety law does not require resellers to test children's products in inventory for compliance with the lead limit before they are sold," according to the commission.

The CPSC also said that beginning Feb. 10, children's products cannot be sold if they contain more than 600 parts per million total lead. Certain children's products, manufactured on or after Feb. 10, cannot be sold if they contain more than 0.1 percent of certain specific phthalates or if they fail to meet new mandatory standards for toys.

"This is not an acceptable answer" from the CPSC, Guenther said. "Though it says resellers, etc., are not required to test, it also reiterates that resellers will have to adhere to the new standards. So unless I test, how will I know?"

The unfortunate side effect of the law as the Consumer Product Safety Commission intended to enforce it, Guenther said, is to put the burden of testing all children's products made before November 2008 on the current owner before they could be legally sold or donated -- even to foreign countries -- after Feb. 10.

Guenther said the law's sweeping testing requirements will also put out of business all children's handcrafters and small businesses that cannot afford testing. She said children's items -- clothing, books, blankets, strollers, toys, school supplies -- everything a child under 12 may use will be deemed hazardous, unless proven otherwise.

"This will cause financial hardship for families looking to buy secondhand items for their children or sell their children's outgrown items to make ends meet," Guenther said.

"We need to fix this law so it still protects the children, but 'grandfather' all legally produced goods made before November 2008, unless they are specifically recalled," she said.

Guenther said the CPSC still needs to address small "mom and pop" manufacturers such as those making children's hairbows and cloth diapers out of their homes.