For the children
under a law Congress passed last year aimed at regulating hazards in children’s products, the federal government has now advised that children’s books published before 1985 should not be considered safe and may in many cases be unlawful to sell or distribute. Merchants, thrift stores, and booksellers may be at risk if they sell older volumes, or even give them away, without first subjecting them to testing—at prohibitive expense.
The Mrs. collects children’s books. She has for years. It appears she’ll soon need a black market book dealer. HT to SIH who notes you need an interest group for everything.
August 6th, 2009 at 1:54 pm
Books: the gateway drug.
August 6th, 2009 at 2:07 pm
What about comic books? I have no idea if those were made with lead ink…
August 6th, 2009 at 3:00 pm
CPSC has decided not to enforce this for now but legislation/ litigation is pursuant.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/13922774/cpsia-book-fact-sheet
August 6th, 2009 at 3:43 pm
I was warning everyone of this when it happened, I think it’s odd that other people have started to catch on. Snopes wrote an article which said it wasn’t true, which is a blatant and intentional LIE on their part. The fact is that while the seller isn’t required to test these books before they’re sold, if they don’t test them, they expose themselves to litigious violence. That means that book burning is now something they’re doing “for the children.”
August 6th, 2009 at 3:46 pm
Not just books, zippers, rhinestones, parts of bicycles, the list goes on.
August 6th, 2009 at 8:05 pm
My main source of info on the CPSIA debacle has been from the Common Room blog. The owner – also a lover of old books – has had many, many informative posts. It isn’t often that legislation like this has opposition from lefty organic-loving tree-huggers and conservative small-government nut-jobs (and I mean both of those in the kindest way possible). Strange bedfellows, indeed.
More at http://heartkeepercommonroom.blogspot.com/search/label/CPSIA