book banning

[Azazello1313]

collect old children's books?

 

congress has just banned your hobby

 

It’s hard to believe, but true: 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. Many used-book sellers, consignment stores, Goodwill outlets, and the like have accordingly begun to refuse new donations of pre-1985 volumes, yank existing ones off their shelves, and in some cases discard them en masse.

 

The problem is the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 (CPSIA), passed by Congress last summer after the panic over lead paint on toys from China. Among its other provisions, CPSIA imposed tough new limits on lead in any products intended for use by children aged 12 or under, and made those limits retroactive: that is, goods manufactured before the law passed cannot be sold on the used market (even in garage sales or on eBay) if they don’t conform. The law has hit thrift stores particularly hard, since many children’s products have long included lead-containing (if harmless) components: zippers, snaps, and clasps on garments and backpacks; skateboards, bicycles, and countless other products containing metal alloy; rhinestones and beads in decorations; and so forth. Combine this measure with a new ban (also retroactive) on playthings and child-care articles that contain plastic-softening chemicals known as phthalates, and suddenly tens of millions of commonly encountered children’s items have become unlawful to resell, presumably destined for landfills when their owners discard them. Penalties under the law are strict and can include $100,000 fines and prison time, regardless of whether any child is harmed.

 

Not until 1985 did it become unlawful to use lead pigments in the inks, dyes, and paints used in children’s books. Before then—and perhaps particularly in the great age of children’s-book illustration that lasted through the early twentieth century—the use of such pigments was not uncommon, and testing can still detect lead residues in books today. This doesn’t mean that the books pose any hazard to children. While lead poisoning from other sources, such as paint in old houses, remains a serious public health problem in some communities, no one seems to have been able to produce a single instance in which an American child has been made ill by the lead in old book illustrations—not surprisingly, since unlike poorly maintained wall paint, book pigments do not tend to flake off in large lead-laden chips for toddlers to put into their mouths.

 

glad I bought at least some of the old classics, like the long out-of-print my bookhouse books, for my daughter before this went into effect.

 

isn't it interesting that government regulation always ends up benefitting large, politically connected corporations at the expense of small businesses and entrepreneuers? it's relatively easy for the large toy corporations that caused this whole lead-toys-from-china mess to implement the testing to comply with the overbroad regulations. but if you own a used book store, you pretty much just have to burn all your pre-1985 children's book stock or risk running afoul of the law.

[Duchess Jack]

collect old children's books?

 

congress has just banned your hobby

 

 

 

glad I bought at least some of the old classics, like the long out-of-print my bookhouse books, for my daughter before this went into effect.

 

isn't it interesting that government regulation always ends up benefitting large, politically connected corporations at the expense of small businesses and entrepreneuers? it's relatively easy for the large toy corporations that caused this whole lead-toys-from-china mess to implement the testing to comply with the overbroad regulations. but if you own a used book store, you pretty much just have to burn all your pre-1985 children's book stock or risk running afoul of the law.

silly that everything is a consperisy theory to folk around here, but it is funny that book manufacturers cannot be made to submit a list of titles that may have lead in them.

[AtomicCEO]

This affects my life.

[Azazello1313]

silly that everything is a consperisy theory to folk around here, but it is funny that book manufacturers cannot be made to submit a list of titles that may have lead in them.

 

I'm not seeing where there's a conspiracy theory. stupid overreaction doesn't require sinister motives. quite the contrary, actually.

[The Irish Doggy]

collect old children's books?

 

congress has just banned your hobby

 

 

 

glad I bought at least some of the old classics, like the long out-of-print my bookhouse books, for my daughter before this went into effect.

 

isn't it interesting that government regulation always ends up benefitting large, politically connected corporations at the expense of small businesses and entrepreneuers? it's relatively easy for the large toy corporations that caused this whole lead-toys-from-china mess to implement the testing to comply with the overbroad regulations. but if you own a used book store, you pretty much just have to burn all your pre-1985 children's book stock or risk running afoul of the law.

 

I agree the regulations seem to go further than most people ever would have thought necessary.

 

FYI, most if not all big retailers required periodic lead testing of everyday imported products years before the government got involved in this hoopla; we've had to do it for Kmart, Target, Sams Club, etc. They all make you go through an independent testing facility. I'd be surprised if the big toy companies didn't have similar procedures in place already as well. I wouldn't be surprised if the procedures failed due to Chinese corruption however.

[Savage Beatings]

I don't eat books.

[Big John]

Would that also entail an unfunded mandate for publc and school libraries to replace older books?

[westvirginia]

Would that also entail an unfunded mandate for publc and school libraries to replace older books?

 

Ooooh - that's a helluva question there, BJ.

[Kid Cid]

Ah yes, the Law of Unintended Consequences raises its ugly head once again.