Posted on 09/30/2010 3:43:21 AM PDT by Daffynition
WASHINGTON – One of the tools that teachers use to get kids jazzed about science — hands-on science kits — could face an uncertain future amid a debate on safety.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission has been mired for weeks in deliberation as it writes guidelines on what makes a product a "children's product" — and consequently which products would have to undergo more stringent safety testing as part of a 2008 law. Caught up in the debate are the classroom science kits and some of the items they contain, such as paper clips to show kids how magnets work.
Science kit makers asked for a testing exemption for the paper clips and other materials. The commission declined to grant them a blanket waiver as part of the guidance the agency approved Wednesday on a 3-2 vote.
The guidance for businesses is supposed to help sort out which products have to be tested under legislation passed by Congress over two years ago that requires rigorous safety checks for lead, chemicals, flammability and other potential dangers.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
If just one life is saved... /snort.
The world is a beautiful and terrible place. You can’t eliminate all risks or dangers. And if you try, there are inherent, bad consequences to that too.
OK to give kids condoms and birth control pills, but
Oh, the dreaded paperclips and little bottles of baking soda, and maybe some deadly sulfur....we are all gonna die.
With the Gilbert chemistry sets that I had in the 50s, today, there would be hazmat teams blocking off the streets for a mile, and evacuating the neighborhood.
R.I.P.
The CPSIA was written by lawyers, for lawyers. There is very little in it that has anything to do with children’s safety. Every company that sells any product for kids has had to already lawyer up just to understand what’s in the damn thing. The law firms are already making a killing off of this POS.
Do you swallow a bunch of them & then see what happens? Do you straighten them out & poke yourself in the eye or ear? Are they dangerous to use during kinky sex?
Shouldn't we be teaching kids how to safely handle, store & use paperclips, to avoid potential disaster? I'd hate to see a recent graduate die on his/her first day on the job from a deadly first encounter with a paperclip.
How many people are employed at the CPSC testing paper clips? 10? 100? 1,000? How many mice, dogs, & monkeys have died or were maimed testing paper clips?
Finally, why do most worthwhile gov’t programs become a public farce that degenerate into nothing more that a jobs program for relatives, friends, & cronies?
This is more than just a concern over the safety of paper clips.
For a long time, there has been an effort to protect people from things they should know enough to avoid in the first place. Kids aren’t even being taught safety; everything potentially dangerous is removed, giving them the false impression that the world is perfectly safe all the time. Then if something happens, someone else is at fault and must be sued.
When my son was little, I watched and did not interfere as he touched a hot object. His reaction was to look at his hand, then test if the object would feel hot if he touched it with the other hand. It was, and he learned to avoid hot objects!
How are kids going to learn anything if they don’t experiment? By the way, I have it on good authority that Lionel trains do NOT go faster if you bypass the transformer and plug the track directly into the wall outlet...
ROFLMAO!!! A mental picture of someone else’s oops is always more fun than explaining the scorch marks on the carpet to your mom.
Paper clips and rubber bands can be lethal.
Paper clips must be registered and stored in government-approved paper clip safes.
The best science project involves applied human reproduction methods
No harsh chemicals or sharp tools or fire is used
Well, I guess they can use plastic paper clips for some things, but those don't work with magnets. I imagine they would really disapprove of the gasoline and black powder experiments we did as kids.
Your Paper clips and rubber bands article reads like something from the onion.
I the whole house ended up smelling like brimstone. Mom thumped me a couple times and took everything out of that chemistry set that she thought was flammable, dangerous, or explosive. That was pretty much it for the chemistry set.
I moved on to model rocketry.......
The stuff I way playing with as a kid would turn these nanny staters into gibbering idiots. I had my own lab set up in the basement complete with bunsen burner. I was ordering supplies from chemical supply houses, including concentrated sulfuric acid. The stuff arrived via US Postal Service.
Not quite sure why, but my parents never did figure out why the drain pipes in the basement sink kept corroding away to nothing!
Wow! One of favorite TV shows of all time, “Watch Mr. Wizard!” I loved that show, along with “Sky King” and “Captain Midnight” and a couple more.
I couldn’t wait for Sat. morning so I could watch them.
Thanks for the memories!
I’m getting pretty sick of this one size fits all society...anyone happy with these new mandated 5 gallon gas cans? The BS plastic triggers seemed to be designed to break every 18mos?
Do we really need all this oversight in EVERY conduct/product we engage in?
Life under the Islamofascists looks pretty simple in comparison.
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