Thrift stores, consignment shops and other sellers of used children's items will not be required to certify that those products meet the new limits for lead imposed by a federal law that takes effect Feb. 10, the Consumer Product Safety Commission said Thursday.

"This is good news to me," said Greg Sears, owner of Pac-Rat Palace, a local consignment store.

Salvation Army Thrift store manager Dorothy Young called the decision "wonderful," but acknowledged that her staff still will need to be educated about the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act, which says that after Feb. 10, children's products cannot be sold in the U.S. if they contain more than 600 parts per million total lead. The total lead limit drops to 300 ppm on Aug. 14.

Resellers of children's items had feared that complying with the new law would put them out of business, but the safety commission issued a clarification that said, "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 standards or new toy standards." Phthalates are chemicals used to make plastics more pliable.

The announcement came in response to a public outcry from secondhand stores and the consumers who shop in them that the new law would have unintended financial consequences. "When I first heard about it, I thought, 'Oh, no, that would put everybody out of business,'" Young said.

Shop owners breathed a collective sigh of relief over the reprieve from new guidelines, but the safety commission muddied the issue by also saying, "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. However, resellers cannot sell children's products that exceed the lead limit and therefore should avoid products that are likely to have lead content, unless they have testing or other information to indicate the products being sold have less than the new limit. Those resellers that do sell products in violation of the new limits could face civil and/or criminal penalties."

Young said that warning still "sounds kind of scary. We'll have to be more educated on what we're putting out. I don't know how you would spot one. Just looking at one, I'd have no idea if it was over the legal limit."

Thrift stores are required by law not to sell recalled products, and many belong to the National Association of Resale and Thrift Shops, which issues recall checklists for toys, car seats, cribs and other child-related items. The safety commission suggested that thrift stores pay special attention to certain product categories, including cribs, play yards, children's jewelry, painted wooden and metal toys, toys with broken parts or loose buttons, etc.

Young said most thrift stores already do those common-sense things.

Sears said he would try to abide by the new law by posting a "Buyer Beware" sign to the effect that some used toys and other items could contain lead amounts above the new limits.

"I'm going to keep doing what I'm doing until somebody tells me that I can't," he said.