I don't know how to do the links like Roothy but this was in yesterday's San Jose Mercury News. After you read it look at my comment about it... (sorry I'm making our blog look stupid because I'm internet UNsavvy)
Librarians relieved that most children's books exempted from new lead law
By Suzanne BohanOakland Tribune
Posted: 02/09/2009 06:39:34 PM PST
Libraries are the latest organizations to win relief from a tough new federal law taking effect today that all but bans lead in children's products.
On Friday, the Consumer Product Safety Commission exempted children's books printed after 1985 from the new law's enforcement provisions, which allow fines of as much as $100,000 per violation for selling or distributing products that contain more than 600 parts per million of lead intended for use by children 12 and younger.
"We're jubilant," said Barbara Roberts, president of the California Library Association on Monday. Before the exemption, Roberts said libraries across the nation faced the prospect of closing their children's sections and discarding thousands of books from their collections.
Roberts added that she was bewildered that lawmakers would pass a law with such broad reach "without thinking of the ramifications in the field."
Like many libraries hoping for a last-minute reprieve, the Oakland Public Library monitored the situation without taking action, citing the "enormity of the process," said Diane Satchwell, administrative librarian for policy and strategic planning with the Oakland library.
The new law, called the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act, heralds the most sweeping change in consumer product safety law in decades. It aims to protect children from lead, which at any level of exposure is deemed a threat to the developing neurological system. The law
also limits the amount of phthalates, a chemical used in plastics, to 0.1 percent in children's products.
But Jennifer Baker, library director with the St. Helena Public Library in Napa Valley, said the law still puts off limits to children rare, older books. She said one library at which she worked kept a collection of Mother Goose books from the early 1900s, while others retain original copies of old classics, like those from the Nancy Drew or Tom Swift series, she said.
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What pisses me off about this law was not that it banned products but that it penalized the sellers and not the manufacturers who added the lead into the products so that they could save a few pennies. The lead should have been banned long ago, we’ve known how bad lead is for kids for decades. I actually spent a little time on the web, researching how and why the lead was turning up so often over the past year in toys. The products were all manufactured in China but not always little junky toys you buy at dollar stores or Walmart but also manufactured for trusted American companies like Mattel and Fischer-Price. I at first had thought that the lead was being accidentally introduced to the toys because of poor quality control or even excess pollution in the water or air but no, it in intentionally added because it gives the toys a brighter color but at a cheaper cost to the manufacturer. What the law should have done is made it illegal for manufacturers to add lead to toy to be imported by the US. I know we (the U.S.) have no jurisdiction in China but they are the ones knowingly added the lead not the distributor or certainly not the final seller (or library) who purchased the products for resale in good faith.
ReplyDeleteOn a last note just about this article, the final paragraph annoyed me when the librarian said the law would still put off limits rare, older books like original copies of Mother Goose or Nancy Drew. THOSE books are kept to be looked at by specialized collectors or researchers like mom. They don’t let kids check out or even handle those books.
Crap, I wish I'd edited the comment before I posted. I can't go back a fix my punctuation or spelling...
ReplyDeleteYes, you can, UncleSam--just click on the little pencil beneath your post.
ReplyDeleteAs a board member of our FW public library I have been following the lead issue. I don't understand why lead content is a problem for any but baby books that might be chewed by the "reader." I do not chew my collectible MG books, but some in my collection look as if they might have been chewed by a former owner. I don't think any of my books were printed in China. I would guess that the percentage of books published in China in any library is negligible - certainly none of the older ones.
ReplyDeleteActually, 75% of the children's books we get now are made in China. (based on a quick spot check I just did of our discards) I'm not trying to minimize the issue, if there is lead in the books, I don't want them. But, I just think the costs for checking should be on the manufacturer not the end buyer.
ReplyDeleteAnd I don't have a little pencil under my comments.