Posted on 02/09/2009 7:10:32 AM PST by StarCMC
With Congress saying “get the lead out,” local retailers and librarians are wondering if common sense gets chucked along with it.
The Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act, which goes into effect Feb. 10, is meant to protect children from lead-laden products. But when the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission gave libraries two options, get rid of all your children’s books or ban anyone under 12 from entering the library, librarians across the country waited for the punch line. But it never came.
“I was speechless,” said Mary Beth Revels, director of the St. Joseph Public Library. “To know it wasn’t a joke and those were our choices.”
After discussing the situation with the library board, she deduced that they would not pack away the library’s 70,000 children’s books and they weren’t going to close the library doors to children.
“We felt that if libraries didn’t comply with this across the country, that we would be taking a stand of continuing to connect children with books,” Ms. Revels said.
The publishing industry has tested the lead content in books, Ms. Revels said, and the levels are within legal limits. But the commission won’t recognize those tests because they weren’t carried out in a “certified lab.”
“But there are no certified labs,” she said incredulously.
And though librarians can’t give an estimate of how many of their children’s books end up in the mouths of readers, Ms. Revels said they’ve never had to replace a book destroyed by an orally fixated patron.
Luckily, libraries have received a reprieve that will last one year, and the commission will consider which products should be exempt from the law.
But local motorcycle shops that sell kid bikes aren’t so lucky. They will not be allowed to sell motorcycles to children as of Feb. 10.
Motorcycles contain lead parts on the batteries and various other areas of the engine.
“It’s so stupid,” said Mike McBride, owner of McBride’s Yamaha on the Belt Highway. “You’d have to suck on an engine case for hours a day to get any lead out of it.”
He’s got about 10 motorcycles that he’ll have to pull off the showroom floor on the 10th if he doesn’t sell them first, which he said won’t happen.
With fines up to $150,000, Mr. McBride said he’s not going to risk keeping them on the floor. Instead, he’ll pay interest on them until “it gets resolved.”
“I think everybody thought (the commission) would have a flash of common sense, but that didn’t happen,” he said.
Jimmy Myers can be reached at jimmym@npgco.com.
http://petitionspot.com/petitions/thumpertalk
If I find a petition about the books I will post it here too. C'mon people! Let's fight this!
Pinging my friends and my fellow PGR members. This legislation is dangerous. Whether you like motorcycles or not, this smacks of total government control. We really need to fight back against this!
The bad news just keeps coming from a government that takes a good idea and screws around with it until it becomes a travesty.
Nothing wrong with trying to keep lead away from kids but this stuff is ridiculous.
what was a slipping toward, has become a mad dash toward European socialism.
BFLR - Thanks for this.
This is as crazy as the recent law about kid’s clothes causing thrift stores to throw out perfectly good stuff by the truck load.
possible ping
This is the same law.
Carbon’s next.
The law itself is bad enough but the implementation is incredibly stupid. "The law is on the books but we may only enforce certain parts of it (until we figure out what we're doing) BUT the states AG's may enforce any parts they like and we still can't tell you specifically what products are affected under the law but if you sell something found later to be under the law you're still liable for a massive fine and imprisonment".
An absolute cluster-fornication of a law if ever there was one. It'll crush thousands of small businesses and the govt will just wonder why.
Quoting from numerous news articles: (Google the News for ‘lead bicycle valve stem’
“Bicycle sales could also be affected as valve stems and spoke nipples on wheels contain trace amounts of lead. The reach of the new law has provoked the ...”
Agreed - but whatever happened to the parents who said “get that out of your mouth! That’s not food!” Good freaking grief! I am so sick of the government thinking they get to be the parents!!!
EXACTLY the same and EXACTLY as idiotic. The book part bothers me a LOT because then you wonder who will be in control of deciding what books are worth of reprinting and which are not. Reminds me of Nazi book burning.
Jewelers will have to pay a carbon tax for every diamond they keep in stock.
Same concept as lead in an engine case.
Oh - I was figuring they’d go directly for the oxygen ban.
It takes a village to raise an idiot...
Thanks for the link — I tried searching a couple different ways and didn’t find that!
Ban everything with batteries!
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