Congress Takes A Brief Break From Drooling Idiocy
They somehow came to their senses long enough to exempt children's books from the lead testing law mandated by the ridiculous Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA).
But, before we get to the kids' books, here's one example of the results of the CPSIA idiocy, and how bad law has big, grubby, overreaching paws:
Yes, you read that correctly: ATVs and motorcycles designed to meet the size and performance needs of young riders ages 6 to 12 became "banned hazardous substances" under the new law.Because lead must be ingested in order to be a health risk, the small amounts of lead that are embedded in metal parts, like the frame and the battery terminals to enhance the safety and functionality of these components, pose no risk to kids.
While not one case of lead poisoning can be documented from children riding youth model ATVs, the Consumer Product Safety Commission's own data shows that more than 90 percent of youth injuries and fatalities occur on larger, adult-size vehicles.
In fact, the CPSC, the ATV industry, safety advocates and parents all agree that it's critical to keep youth riders off adult-sized ATVs, and have cooperated for years to educate ATV riders that children should ride only ATVs that are the correct size for them.
...Kids aren't licking or eating their ATVs, but they just might ride adult-sized ATVs thanks to this ban.
But, finally -- a little CPSIA relief, as posted in School Library Journal:
By a one-sided vote of 421-2, the House of Representatives passed an amendment to the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) that excludes "ordinary" children's books and learning materials from being tested for lead content. And the Senate quickly followed suit in a voice vote, sending the bill on to President Obama to sign into law....If Congress had not approved the recent amendment, libraries would have been required to restrict access to their children's book collections.
As in, restrict access to exclude children. To exclude children!
Meanwhile, thanks to ludicrous rules about toy testing under the CPSIA, my neighbor can no longer sell the children's games she made to help her family make ends meet in a screwed economy. It would cost her not $4,000 per game as I thought (for testing each of the four games), but $8,000 to have both the fabric "board" and the game pieces tested for each...so a total of $32,000, which is probably about $30,000 more than she would have made selling all of the games (if they weren't piled up in a box in her garage).
Meanwhile, my neighbor is so "green" I'm surprised she doesn't personally grow leaves, these games are made of organic cotton, dyed with vegetable dyes, and include little wooden pieces. That's wood from trees, not wood from lead mines, where it's apparently sometimes known to be found in large, wooded groves!
via Lenore Skenazy
I can see the warning label on the ATVs now:
Always wear a helmet when operating the vehicle.
Only operate vehicle under adult supervision.
.
.
.
Do not eat, lick or other-wise ingest vehicle at any time.
The Former Banker at August 8, 2011 11:25 PM
Maybe we need a constitutional limit on how many federal laws we're allowed to have as a nation.
No more than say, 1,000 federal laws, and the laws themselves have an 8x12 sized paper size 12 font length limit of 10 pages.
(1000 is more than twice the number we had in the early 20th century) I believe we have over 4000 now, and growing.
Robert at August 9, 2011 2:37 AM
Someone should have told Klinger about that.
brian at August 9, 2011 4:51 AM
@ Robert.......now you're talking! The Saturation Ammendment.....if you want to add one law, you have to find one to remove.
nuzltr2 at August 9, 2011 5:47 AM
It won't be long now until "scientists" are saying that children have a lead deficiency and are not getting enough in their diets.
Cat at August 9, 2011 6:53 AM
"my neighbor is so "green" I'm surprised she doesn't personally grow leaves"
Indeed, many craft-oriented businesses are run by women, very often women of the liberal persuasion, and businesses of this type have been very hard-hit by CPSIA. I wonder how many of the owners have re-evaluated their political views in the light of this experience>
david foster at August 9, 2011 8:34 AM
Wonder what these two were thinking to vote against?
# Kucinich (D, OH)
# Rush (D, IL)
Steamer at August 9, 2011 9:02 AM
@steamer:
it is possible that the correct question is in fact:
"were they thinking?"
nico@hou at August 9, 2011 9:11 AM
Amy, why doesn't your neighbor sell the games on Craigslist or something? Here in San Diego, people can make decent money listing things on CL. If you're halfway intelligent about it (ie, don't go making sales in abandoned alleys at 11:30 pm), it's perfectly safe.
Sarah at August 9, 2011 9:52 AM
Her games are probably perfect for sale on Etsy or one of the other hipster craft site, too. Etsy has virtually NO oversight.
Sarah at August 9, 2011 9:53 AM
Too little, too late on the book exemption. I suspect that most of the vintage children's books that were impacted by the law have already been destroyed.
Cousin Dave at August 9, 2011 7:26 PM
Too little, too late on the book exemption. I suspect that most of the vintage children's books that were impacted by the law have already been destroyed
One wonders if that wasnt the point.
As for your neighbor Amy, as 'learnig tool' are exepmt perhaps she should market them as educational aides
lujlp at August 9, 2011 9:11 PM
>>"Too little, too late on the book exemption. I suspect that most of the vintage children's books that were impacted by the law have already been destroyed."
At my library, we went ahead & got rid of most of it last year. We tossed all the classics (the ones that are still in print and able to be reordered) and a TON of nonfiction. The nonfic wasn't so tragic, since a lot of it is outdated or far above the reading level of today's kids (the Isaac Asimov series stands out in that regard).
cornerdemon at August 10, 2011 9:28 AM
Amy Alkon
http://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2011/08/09/congress_takes.html#comment-2413693">comment from cornerdemonJust awful, cornerdemon.
Amy Alkon
at August 10, 2011 9:30 AM
Amy, she doesn't have to spend that kind of money to test her products. I assume she buys the materials to make them with instead of growing her own cotton and spinning and weaving into fabric, cutting up her own trees for pieces, and making her own dyes. She is only required to have available the certificate from the manufacturer of the materials. I have a handmade cloth diaper business and there was major hysteria over the rules putting us out of business as well. It turns out the only things needing to be certified compliant are the polyacetyl (basically a plastic type material) snaps and the laminate on the back of waterproof fabric if it's not covered and enclosed by other materials. The manufacturer/supplier of my snaps certifies them compliant as does the manufacturer of the waterproof fabric. I'm not required to do any further testing of any kind because I do not make the materials, just use them.
I agree that your friend should sell them as educational tools and/orcontact the manufacturers of her raw materials for their testing or certifications.
BunntGirl at August 11, 2011 12:29 AM
Amy Alkon
http://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2011/08/09/congress_takes.html#comment-2414477">comment from BunntGirlThanks, BunntGirl, but it doesn't seem to work for her with the parts of her games. She had the game pieces cut, etc.
Amy Alkon
at August 11, 2011 12:33 AM
At my library, we went ahead & got rid of most of it last year. We tossed all the classics (the ones that are still in print and able to be reordered) and a TON of nonfiction. The nonfic wasn't so tragic, since a lot of it is outdated or far above the reading level of today's kids (the Isaac Asimov series stands out in that regard).
Posted by: cornerdemon at August 10, 2011 9:28 AM
Sad. Reminds me of why I go to as many library sales as possible - out-of-print books can be expensive online, when you include shipping. Besides, you find titles whose existence you had forgotten about!
But that bit about "far above the reading level of today's kids" reminds me of why I wouldn't want to have kids. I would want my kids to be devoted readers, and I can't imagine how much less of a reader I would have been had I known (whether in 3rd grade or high school) self-confident, popular kids who openly put down readers and reading. (I didn't even know any UNPOPULAR kids - in the 1980s - who talked like that! Chances are, they knew they would just be making themselves look ignorant.) Nowadays, brazen kids like that are pretty common, from what I hear - reading is considered to be a waste of time, not just compared to video games and the fact that the social scene is all tied up in such games, but compared to the pursuit of the almighty dollar. It's no wonder that an "eighth-grade reading level" doesn't mean what it used to. Scary.
lenona at August 11, 2011 7:41 AM
Leave a comment