CPSIA and thrift stores... again?

A while back there were some toys from China that were found to have too much lead in them. The media went crazy because 1) people hate the Made in China label in the first place and 2) ingesting lead is bad, especially for children and infants/toddlers have a tendency to put anything they find in their mouth.

So, people wrote their congressmen (and women); a law was written (CPSIA) and passed; and as a result of that justified hysteria a whole host of things that are perfectly useful and will never find their way to a toddler's mouth are being thrown out. Even items that have acceptable levels of lead according to a limited testing will be thrown out because precious few can afford the more comprehensive and more expensive testing the government now requires. If they continue to sell or "distribute" (which includes just giving the items away) these items and they turn out to have lead in them that more comprehensive testing would have revealed, they could face large fines and even jail time.

Before 1985, the illustrations in children's books (the paper and cardboard kind) used lead. Therefore, because they are an item children use, all children's books printed before 1985 are suspect. This even applies to libraries. Why? Because libraries "distribute" books and CPSIA applies to all distributors.

Libraries, which had been given a year's stay, are unsure if they will be allowed to keep any children's books printed before 1985. Some have begun to quarantine books.

Even some thrift stores, which I thought had been made exempt, have decided to throw out pre-1985 "ordinary" children's books and any children's clothes that have metal parts as a way of avoiding future liability. It makes more financial sense to just throw the items away.

What's next? Seriously, what other insanity is going to come out of this law? I didn't think I would ever advocate anything political on this blog, but something needs to be done. So, write your local paper, call or send a letter/email to your congressman, find some way of stopping this insanity before we lose something more than some clothes and a part of our heritage.