The Consumer Products Safety Improvement Act went into effect on August 14, 2009. The CPSIA, which governs all products for ages 12 and under and was spurred by recalls of lead-containing toys, is intended to protect children from harm, particularly from lead and phthalates. It was enacted in August 2008 and its first major provisions went into effect in February 2009.
Problematic for publishers of children’s books was a requirement for component testing of every print run (testing of all of the elements that make up the book — ink, paper, board, glue) which, for a small publisher and short print run, could cost more than then book itself.
Lead levels in children’s books must be 300 parts per million or less, down from the 600 ppm level that went into effect in February. The publishing industry has argued that new books are uniformly far below these limits, (modern children’s book test out at less than 10 ppm) and should not be subject to the law’s testing and certification requirements. “Regular” ink-on-paper or board books printed after 1985 were granted a stay of enforcement. Books that contain special elements like attached toys will still require testing.
While no one wants unsafe books or toys in the hands of tots, the over-reaching requirements of the Act could have put a lot of smaller publishers out of business and greatly reduced an already risk-adverse publishing industry from taking chances with a short run for a promising new author or illustrator. Still problematic are books published before 1985 that sit on library shelves and used bookstores. Those books will likely have to be pulled and pulped.
Old library books “pulled and pulped,” seriously? I’m outraged.
It’s true libraries which are perpetually underfunded and understaffed will never be able to afford testing, or restocking with more recently printed classics.
Whatever happened to personal responsibility? What conscientious parent lets their child chew on a library book? Does this mean that our kids will no longer be able to enjoy the classic picture books: The Cat in the Hat, Good Night Moon, Where the Wild Things Are, and my personal favorite, Harold and the Purple Crayon? Unacceptable. And if the powers that be running scared from the pack of greedy lawyers who conceived this have any cojones they will stop it short of this illogical conclusion.
Nothing short of our culture is at stake.
Well, even if lazy parents DID let their children chew on pre-1985 books, they STILL don’t have lead levels anywhere near what could be deemed dangerous. A kid would have to eat their way through a mountain of books and they’d likely just have a tummy ache.