CPSIA Confusion

I liked this post on the CPSIA and books, but several commenters were confused about the law and consequently posted erroneous statements. Here are some corrections:

No, it wasn't 'Big Business' who lobbied for this bill. See here for the list of culprits.

Snopes is a completely unreliable source on this issue. Greco Woodcrafting explains why. He's not the only one. And Tristan is hilarious in her take-down. Snopes is so badly wrong on this one that I will never trust them again.

No, you cannot sell older books for children now- at least, not legally. Yes, recently, the CPSC 'clarified' their regulatory guidance, and it was very good news for crafters who use only textiles, but it's still illegal to sell books for children that were printed before 1985. In fact, CPSC Commissioner Thomas Moore informed libraries that they needed to 'sequester' these books from children.

No, books are not 'almost certainly above the lead limits' and, in fact, nobody has ever gotten any elevated blood levels from the books, and it is unlikely they could for a number of reasons. See here, for a longer post I wrote pointing out that toddlers chew on book corners, illustrations in toddler books are more usually centered on the page, that 12 year olds do not eat their books, yet the law treats their books just the same, that the few illustrations containing lead generally are limited to a single color, not the entire illustration, that as part of the substrate, there is no indication that the lead would leave the book and enter a child's blood stream, that saliva alone does not break down lead anyway and cause it to enter the blood stream so licking and sucking wouldn't result in elevated lead levels. But it doesn't matter- this law actually has written into the law a requirement that risk assessment cannot be considered- only how much lead is in a product- NOT how likely it is a child could get it (the lead in bikes, for instance, is in parts like tire valve stems, but that doesn't matter, the bikes are illegal. For more on the actual facts about lead in children's books and how likely it is to make children sick, see here, here, and here.

The Rainbow Fish may also be dead in the water.

And no, you cannot necessarily get away with breaking the law by selling your used children's books as vintage items only to and for adults.

Pin It

Pin It