Sherry blogs about the Consumer Products Safety Improvement Act, saying she knows of a used bookstore trashing all of it’s children’s books out of fear of this Improvement Act. I thought second-hand stores, thrift, used, and libraries, were exempt from this act, but even if that’s true, some store owners are not comforted by it.
The CPSC has, as of last week, made an exception for “ordinary children’s books printed after 1985.” Supposedly, some inks used before 1985 may have contained some lead. (However, the eight, nine, or ten year old reading a copy of Winnie the Pooh printed before 1985 would have to eat the book to get get any level of lead into their system. My four to twelve year olds don’t eat books. Do yours?) Right now, the bookstore where my daughter works is getting around the law by reclassifying their children’s books printed before 1985 as “vintage books” for adult collectors. Of course, this strategy is just that, a way of circumventing the law. That 1983 copy of Winnie the Pooh isn’t really vintage or collectible; it also isn’t dangerous to children.
Apparently, youth dirt bikes and ATVS are illegal to sell under the same act. Is the government trying to put small companies and many retailers out of business? It sure seems to be. Do we hate congress enough to rally for mandatory six-month vacations now? The less time they spend in Washington, the better we’ll be.
The North Dakota Senate just passed a bill banning bottle rockets. My comment about them was that they’re a bunch of old biddies.
This bill seems to fall into the same category.
If I were the conspiracy-minded sort, I’d suggest that the inclusion of old books in this is a way of getting books that the Powers That Be (TM) don’t approve of out of circulation. I don’t think they’re quite that clever, though.