A recent act of Congress has delivered a huge headache to publishers, libraries, schools and many retailers including bookstores—both new and used—antique stores, thrift stores, and cataloguers.
The act, the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act, is a result of high lead content found in some imported toys and is aimed at protecting children under 12. Each toy or other consumer product aimed at children must be tested.
The problem is, the act, enacted in August 2008 and set to take effect February 10, doesn’t specifically exclude books. With threats of fines as high as $100,000 per instance, retailers are telling children’s book publishers to show proof of testing, or they will return the books. (Books are almost always sold on a fully-returnable basis to retailers.)
Naturally there is a cost, it can run as high as $1,500 per book, but the third-party testing facilities are overwhelmed at the moment. And, of course, few out-of-print titles will be tested.
Schools, libraries, are in the fray, concerned that they will have to empty their shelves of children’s books that they have had for years.
Publishers Weekly Daily quotes Random House Children’s Book publisher, Chip Gibson, as saying, “This is a potential calamity like nothing I’ve ever seen. The implications are quite literally unimaginable. Books are safe. This is like testing milk for lead. It has to be stopped.”
I imagine it is hard for lawmakers to consider all the ramifications of everything they do. Certainly no one faults them for trying to protect children, but they need to make sure they aren’t going off half-cocked.