Common Sense and the CPSIA

I don’t know if you’ve heard or not, but common sense seems to have taken an extended vacation. The Consumer Product Improvement Act (CPSIA) was been written to try and keep lead out of all products that would end up in the hands of children 12-yeas-old and younger. That sounds okay on the face of it, after all, who wants to give their kid a toy with lead in it? The trouble is, as Heather Cushman-Dowdee so eloquently put it, “the law covers everything that is sold, made, or even MIGHT be used, by kids under 12. It all has to be tested. Paid for by the manufacturer. Do you love to buy handmade toys? Like to buy slings from a local company? Get your cloth diapers from other mothers off eBay? Support the craftspeople of Etsy? They are all scrambling right now, trying to figure out how this law will apply to them, how to possibly get around it, and ultimately how to pay for the testing. An expense that will be easily met by Mattel, but not so easily met by Grandma Ruth.” The problem is that Cushman-Dowdee’s interpretation is not an exaggeration. It is what the law is going to do if it is not rewritten before the February 10th deadline. Now, it seems, that this [EXPLITIVE DELETED] of a knee-jerk reactionary law has taken another turn. The following was taken from the ALA’s website and just goes to show that lawyers can suck the common sense out of just about anything (the portion in bold below is the official legal position of those responsible for the CPSIA, and is nothing short of mind-boggling):

WASHINGTON, D.C.—The American Library Association (ALA) today expressed dissatisfaction with a public meeting held by the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) to discuss the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) and whether the law, which requires children’s products to undergo stringent testing for lead, should apply to ordinary, paper-based children’s books.

Under the current opinion issued by the General Counsel of the CPSC, the law would apply to books for children under the age of 12; therefore, public, school, academic and museum libraries would be required to either remove all their children’s books or ban all children under 12 from visiting the facilities as of February 10, 2009.

During the meeting, members of a panel including representatives of the American Association of Publishers (AAP) as well as major book publishers and ink manufacturers, addressed questions raised by the CPSC rulemaking committee regarding the testing procedures and methodologies currently exercised in the production of an ordinary book.

The panel presented a collection of data reinforcing their position that ordinary books pose no inherent threat. This information can be viewed HERE. Though the CPSC acknowledged that the current deadlines are unrealistic and potentially damaging, the General Counsel gave no clear indication as to when an official ruling would be made and could offer no definite direction to libraries at this point.

“It is completely irresponsible and unacceptable for the CPSC to continue to leave this matter unresolved with the February 10th deadline drawing closer each day,” ALA President Jim Rettig said.

“It is apparent that the CPSC does not fully understand the ramifications this law will have for libraries—and for children—if libraries are not granted an exemption. At this point, we are advising libraries not to take drastic action, such as removing or destroying books, as we continue to hope this matter will be rectified and that the attention will be paid to the products that pose a true threat to children. However, we find it disappointing and shameful that a government agency would continue to leave this matter unsettled when clearly the outcome would virtually shut down our nation’s school and public libraries.”

If you are as OUTRAGED about this as I am (and I hope you are) I would urge you to contact your representatives in Congress and urge them to rewrite this law. They’ve been sitting on it for I don’t know how long, knowing FULL WELL what the law means as it stands written, and haven’t done a [EXPLITIVE DELETED] thing about it. Cushman-Dowdee has a sample letter you can copy and paste and send to your legislators HERE (it’s near the bottom of the post at the end of the second purple box), and you can find out who your Representative is (if you don’t know already) HERE and your Senators HERE. I can’t imagine that my Rep is going to do anything about this, but it doesn’t hurt to try.