Thank God. The whole thing was becoming a three ring circus. The Toy Industry Association is still unhappy, by the way. I’m not sure why - I think they wanted a general absolution from testing or an honest-to-god clarification of what the heck the testing requirements were actually going to be. Frankly, I’m just happy that we can get games made in the short term without wondering if we’re meeting all the testing requirements. I mean,  a board game and plastic pawns are about as close to lead and pthalate free as you can get in this world, so it’s a safe bet that these products will meet the safety requirements, but the testing requirements were vague and confusing, and possibly draconian to boot. Nice combo.

Suffice to say that my previous column about the safety law being the “hot topic” of conversation for the first half of 2009 is now moot. Work on the law’s implementation proceed quietly in the background, leaving everyone free to kvetch about the awful economy. More on that in a future post…