Do you enjoy browsing around used book stores? We enjoy looking though the books finding books for my children that I read as a child. I also like getting a good deal, so this works out well for me...interesting books, great prices. Other times I try to find out of print books for my children from ebay or amazon.
Can you imagine my shock and horror upon learning that the government wants to protect us from lead in these books and is putting a stop to the reselling of books due to concern over possible high lead levels? I was horrified* that I may have been subjecting my children to lead in our books all these years. But when I do a google search for recalled books due to lead, I am come up short. True, there have been cases of books with spiral bindings being recalled, but nothing that would cause the government to need to protect us from regular paper based books with regular bindings, with the overall ban and testing regime that is coming into effect.
The bookshop blog posted a blog entry today about this very subject and it is a good follow-up on yesterday's post. I was concerned about the book industry and it gave good details about the implications of the CPSIA. They cited the example of a publisher that produces two different textbooks on the same day, on the same machines, with the same paper, by the same work crew. These books will need separate tests. First, that they would need to be tested at all is mind boggling. Then to add insult to injury by requiring separate tests is just plain stupid.
This is a good way to discourage variety in children's book printing. It is a good way to discourage boutique printers. Maybe that is good. Sometimes I go to bookstores and am overwhelmed by the number of books to choose from.
Let me continue. All those books, in bookstores that that could be used by children 12 years of age and younger, need to be tested to confirm compliance with the lead law, by February 10th, or they cannot be sold (or even donated). Even expensive, rare, collectible children's books, where the publisher no longer exists must be tested or they cannot be sold.
You can read more about this on the bookshop blog. I posted a comment on that blog asking for additional details from anyone in regards to how this affects the work of libraries and existing books at schools. If anyone has details please comment.
I guess if there was a silver lining, I've never been to a book burning, but I hear they are kind of exciting. Maybe we should plan very public book burnings in major cities across the country (with appropriate permits of course), to show the public what is at stake.
Tomorrow, I expect I will write about yet another industry that is going to face severe hardship, for no good reason, due to the CPSIA.
*Not really, I have a little common sense to know that this is part of the CPSIA which is one of the most ludicrous, wide sweeping, and potentially most damaging piece of legislation we have ever seen...and trust me the competition for that prize is stiff.
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