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The Cost of Compliance with CPSIA I’ve been researching XRF testing for about 2 weeks. As many people are finding it to be the way they want to go to test items (at least until August). I looked into the DIY version. Of course, I DIY everything else! Why not this?? So here are some company names and rental rates. Renting your XRF gun: Here are 3 companies that will rent an XRF gun to you. All of these companies say that they’re easy, user-friendly machines. They’ll download your data into an excel document for you. Honestly, at first I thought this would definitely be the way to go. Until I saw how much it would cost me. Innov-X Systems100 Sylvan Rd., Suite 500Woburn, MA 01801Phone: (781) 938-5005 Ext. 309 My contact was Kyle and he sent me a document detailing the following rental costs: Monthly Rental - $4,900.00 Weekly Rental - $1,900.00 Daily Rental Daily (2-day minimum) - $575.00 I never got the information about training from Kyle. Though it seemed as though there was some type of training involved. Atlas Inspection Technologies500 Elliot Ave WSuite ASeattle WA 98119Office 800-281-0650 ext. 2424My contact was Tyler. In his email to me, he stated, “As far as training goes, if you are in the US no training is necessary. We send the gun along with a good set of instructions and it is very easy to use.” Daily Rental - $500/day Weekly Rental - $2000/week. Ajax Environmental and Safety Supply2537 S. Gessner, Suite 238Houston, TX 77063Ph (713) 789-4149 My contact was Judd. I spoke with him on the phone and he emailed me the following rates: $400 - day $1,400 - week $4,000 - month Estimated shipping $235 (EACH WAY). After contacting these 3 companies I determined that there was no way I could do this myself. It was simply financially prohibitive. If a company were to provide me training, I might be more inclined. But again for those enormous daily rates PLUS shipping costs for overnight shipping each way (it costs a lot of money to ship an item that costs $40K to replace!), I determined this was not a cost effective method of testing for me. My next step was to a local company who tests for lead in the home. They had never heard of CPSIA. They said while they use an XRF gun it’s not the same type of gun I needed and therefore were really unable to give me a definitive test. They’d charge me $125 just to come visit my house and then up to $500 for half a day of testing. But since they didn’t have the proper equipment to give me a pass/fail based on the lead levels required by the CPSIA, I decided this was not the best way to spend my money. However, I’m sure there are local companies out there who are equipped to handle these types of requests. So it is definitely worth exploring in your area. One place you might call to find one is your pediatrician's office. Since they often deal with testing children for lead, they may have a suggestion for a company that typically tests your home. At this point I determined that neither of these options, renting a gun or finding a local company was the right one for me. I was starting to lose hope that there was a viable, affordable XRF option. I also considered trying to arrange for a co-op of folks to rent a gun with and split the cost, but I was having some trouble getting traction in that arena as well. So I decided to explore my options in terms of where I could send my items to be tested.Stay Tuned for XRF Testing – Volume 2 Sending your Items for Testing 7 Stages of Grief Every day I scour the web and the CSPC website for new information about the CPSIA. And every day there’s some roller coaster ride of “good news” and “bad news” first saving my business from extinction and then destroying it and putting me out of business. I realize there are a lot of people who have been dealing with this issue much longer than I have. Since late November I’ve been reading, researching, placing calls, and discussing it with anyone who will listen on a daily basis. My part time home based business gets even less of my time and learning about CPSIA and lobbying for change has become almost a full time job.I also went through the 7 stages of grief during this time. That must sound a little wonky but I bet if you search your feelings, you might find it to be true of you too. (That statement was very Star Wars Geek of me) Stage 1 – Shock/Denial – “Naaaah, this can’t be true!” “That’s just crazy!” “What I’m reading has GOT to be wrong.” Stage 2- Pain – The thought of losing the business I’ve been building over the past 2 years hurts me to the core. My items are part of who I am. Sometimes I am even sad when they sell because I really love them! Stage 3- Anger – Anger at those who passed the law and anger at not being aware of it until it seemed too late to change anything. Stage 4- Depression – Feeling a sense of impending doom as I prepare to liquidate inventory and go out of business. Stage 5 - The Upward Turn -Slight hope as change starts to happen that maybe it will all be ok and I will be able to stay in business after all. Stage 6 - Reconstruction and Working Through - Creating a business plan that I’m comfortable with that includes a reasonable testing program leaving me with a high level of confidence that my products comply with the lead laws, even if they don’t comply with the third party testing requirement. Stage 7 - Acceptance and Hope - Becoming comfortable with my business plan and hope that things will change based on some of the statements and letters I’ve seen from the CPSC and legislators. So, since I’ve reached the acceptance stage. I am going to cautiously move forward with my reasonable testing program and my business plan, which includes discontinuing a few things and expanding a few others. But first, I might take a few days to just decompress from this roller coaster. I will still likely report on things I find of interest regarding the CPSIA, but I’m going to work hard at making my blog a place for other BuggaLove news as well.