If you haven't heard about the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA), you need to. Basically, it regulates lead content in all products for children ages 0-12. Sounds good on the surface, but it's not. All means all - not just toys, but books, clothing, dirt bikes, etc. This went into effect February 10th.
Since this is a book group I'll focus on how that. The book side of this is what really got me upset about it. The CPSC has determined that books printed pre-1985 are a possible "hazardous materials" because there could be lead in the ink, so book resellers are either throwing them away or if possible, storing them until the legislation is changed. For now libraries are considering themselves exempt, but I hate to think what will happen if the CPSC decides they aren't.
No child has ever gotten lead poisoning from a book.
Rush Limbaugh talked about this Tuesday (17th) on his show, and mentioned that he doesn't understand why there isn't an uproar over this. On the show he talks with someone that sells dirt bikes and what that has done to their company. Like with books, no one buys a dirt bike, takes it home, a child starts licking it, and gets lead poisoning. It just doesn't happen.
This blanket legislation NEEDS to go away. It is affecting an already hurting economy in a very bad way, not to mention the history being lost banning the resell of books printed pre-1985.
For more information, links to other sites, an interview with the former director of the CPSC about this (it's pathetic), got to my blog.
http://stillswinging.blogspot.com/2009/02/cpsia-bad-to-worse.html
http://stillswinging.blogspot.com/2009/02/brain-wreck_17.html
E-mail your state legislators, call, whatever it takes - but this needs to change!!!
Marni
