The usually trustworthy Snopes.com has screwed the pooch on the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) of 2009.
There’s been a lot of talk about it’s effect on flea markets and thrift shops, and Snopes tries to oil the troubled waters.
However, the new regulations are not as restrictive as first feared, nor will they put the thrift shops out of business.
…
Sellers of used children’s products, such as thrift stores and consignment stores, are not required to certify that those products meet the new lead limits, phthalates standard or new toy standards.
Oh, is that so? Reading further we find:
In other words, used children’s items offered for resale after 10 February 2009 must still meet the new CPSIA standards regarding lead and phthalate content, but vendors will not have to have such items tested and certified.
Hmmmmmm…
Vendors should therefore “avoid products that are likely to have lead content, unless they have testing or other information to indicate the products being sold have less than the new limit.”
Now what might that include?
How about just about everything? Including, it seems, ALL children’s books made before 1985. By law it will be illegal to sell, give or transfer ownership of any children’s book published before 1985. You don’t have to do any expensive testing. You just can’t do it.
I can’t wait ’till someone tries to burn one of these lead containing books. Or put it in a landfill. Maybe they can be snuck into landfills with fluorescent lamps.
So what if one of these unthreatened thrift shops fails to test their items and sells something that violates the standards of the new law?
“Those resellers that do sell products in violation of the new limits could face civil and/or or criminal penalties,” a reasonable interpretation of that statement as it applies to the sale of used goods would be that the agency will focus its attentions on those retailers who blatantly take a cavalier attitude towards the used childrens’ items in their inventory by continuing to vend merchandise items they have good reason to suspect contain lead.
Interesting! What are we to do with older books for children? Can we give them science fiction instead? Should we start wearing masks before reading in the library?
Back when Cabbage Patch Dolls were popular, I found some in a flea market. I sniffed one and it smelled of oily rags instead of baby powder. So I knew it was a counterfeit and probably someone was selling our industrial waste back to us.
BTW, what country’s regulations are you talking about?
This is now federal law in the US.
Hugh Hewitt did a radio show about it yesterday with a lawyer who works with businesses trying to get compliant with the new law:
Monday February 23, 2009
H1: Gary Wolensky With Hugh Hewitt
02230901 Hewitt: Hour 1 – Hugh talks with trial lawyer Gary Wolensky about the law of unintended consequences when applied to the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act, which has destroyed billions of dollars of inventories needlessly.
Podcast available at:
http://townhall.com/talkradio/Show.aspx?RadioShowID=5
[...] Central, which took out after the offending Snopes.com on the books issue a couple of weeks ago, follows up today with a post entitled, “Snopes Defending the Book Burners”. Linda L. [...]
Hugh Hewitt followed up yesterday with another hour on this topic, again with Gary Wolensky, and also with a segment featuring Sen. Jim DeMint. The upshot is that while some Senate Republicans are trying to get these regulations (now in effect) delayed and modified, Sen. Maj. Ldr. Harry Reid is blocking their efforts. Show description:
Tuesday March 10, 2009
H3: Gary Wolensky, Jim DeMint With Hugh Hewitt
03090903 Hewitt: Hour 3 – Hugh continues his crusade to fix the Consumer Products Safety Improvement Act, which is devastating all sorts of sectors of the economy becuase of Congressional overreach, and talks with attorney Gary Wolensky and South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint.
Podcast available at:
http://townhall.com/TalkRadio/Show.aspx?RadioShowId=5
So, Spaceship Galileo, Starship Troopers, all the Heinlein juveniles, into the fire. Very sad.