CPSC votes for one-year CPSIA delay on certain products

The Consumer Product Safety Commission today granted a one-year stay of testing and certification requirements for certain products to be regulated under the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act. According to the agency, the stay provides "some temporary, limited relief to the crafters, children’s garment manufacturers and toy makers who had been subject to the testing and certification required under the CPSIA." Not included under the stay are, among other things, the ban on lead in paint and other surface coatings, the standards for full-size and non full-size cribs and pacifiers and the limits on lead content of metal components of children’s jewelry.

In a statement, Consumers Union said: "We would have preferred the CPSC to use its authority under the law to grant specific exemptions for products that pose little or no health risk. This stay of enforcement for one year goes beyond what would have been necessary if the CPSC had addressed the concerns in a timely manner. Nevertheless, it does preserve the most critical intent of the law -- to protect children from dangerous products -- while leaving time to sort out implementation issues."

Comments

[K. Gould]

The library community has welcomed the stay - not because we want to expose children to lead, but because it seems that as written the law would require public libraries to remove all children's books from their shelves or otherwise prevent children from accessing them until they could be tested and certified as lead free. This would have (1)imposed a huge cost burden on public libraries that are already struggling with budget cuts and greatly increased usage (who would pay to remove the books, have them tested, and return them to the shelf...and by the way there don't yet appear to be any certified testing labs), and (2) denied children access to resources that promote literacy and support educational achievement as libraries while the libraries do what they can to come into compliance given limited financial and staff resources.

We would be more than happy to comply prospectively by ensuring we only purchase items that have been certified as meeting the new standards, its the requirement for retrospective compliance that is of concern.

This has to be an unintended consequence of the legislation, but until the requirements related to public and school libraries are clarified the implementation of the law should be suspended.

Note also that the CPSC itself has confirmed that traditionally printed books have not been shown to have significant levels of lead...

[David]

Thank goodness they stayed this lousy rule. We have a small business producing and selling art prints for children's rooms. According to the manufacters, neither the ink nor the paper we use contain lead. Nevertheless the interpretation of the law is so general that we would be forced to test every one of the hundreds of different prints we offer even though they are all made using the same ink and paper sources! This would cost us thousands, and thousands, and thousands of dollars. Having four children of my own, I too want to protect my kids, but requiring testing on ALL kid related items is absurd. Like most kids products, ours has nothing to do with lead but we would have test everything all the same. In its current form, the ruling is a small business KILLER.