CPSC ruling requires children’s books to be removed for safety
testing
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The American Library Association (ALA)
released a letter to Congress yesterday, urging members to take action
against a recent opinion ruling released from the General Counsel of the
Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) that would require public, school,
academic and museum libraries to either remove all their books or ban all
children under 12 from visiting the facilities, beginning on February 10.
The opinion was issued to the Association of American Publishers (AAP),
following the group’s request to exclude children’s books from regulation
under the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA), which passed the
110th Congress in August and is enforced by the CPSC.
Under the CPSC’s interpretation of the law, which seeks to protect
children from exposure to lead and phthalate, books for children under the
age of 12 are required to undergo the same testing procedures as children’s
toys. Since the General Counsel’s opinion is retroactive, all books currently
on library or store shelves must be removed for testing, including textbooks
and children’s literature books in academic library research collections.
The publishing community has supplied the Commission with evidentiary
support (available at www.rrd.com/cpsia ) that books and other non-book,
paper-based printed materials should not be subject to the lead, phthalate,
and applicable ASTM standards that are referenced in CPSIA because they do
not present any of the health or safety risks to children that the law
intended to address.
ALA President Jim Rettig said he agrees that books do not pose a threat to
children and should not be subject to regulation.
“The CPSC should enforce this important legislation where the dangers are
– not with books, which are not playthings and should remain unregulated,”
Rettig said.
“I sincerely doubt that Congress intended to require libraries to be
subject to this law, but if Congress does not act soon, libraries across the
country will be forced to remove books from the shelves, rather than keep
them available to serve the educational needs of our nation’s children.”
The ALA’s letter to Congress can be viewed here.
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Jenni Terry
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