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(Click here for our complete coverage of CPSIA.)

The book publishing industry is joining the American Library Association in questioning the wisdom and intent of applying CPSIA lead and phthalate standards to children’s books. The American Association of Publishers (AAP) and Children’s Book Council (CBC) are among the groups starting to lobby the Senate and House to clarify and/or revise CPSIA to exempt conventionally printed hardcover and paperback books.

Many children’s books have already moved to soy-based organic inks. There is little or no evidence of lead or phthalates being a problem in older inks or in paper, cardboard, and glues used for printing most books. While the industry agrees that specialty books that have plastic and metal parts might warrant testing according to CPSIA limits, it strongly disagrees with the necessity of such testing for conventional books books printed on paper and cardboard.

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(Click here for our complete coverage of CPSIA.)

Our previous posts on the Consumer Products Safety Improvement Act of 2008 (CPSIA) have brought up the legal and financial risks faced by resellers of used and new children’s clothing, toys, and other products. These appear to extend to private sellers on eBay and Craigslist as well as to consignment stores and charity/resale organizations such as Goodwill Industries. We’ve also mentioned problem faced by libraries and home business and small business children’s product manufacturers for which testing costs may be prohibitive. They may be forced to stop loaning out existing children’s books already in their collections for years and selling safe products simply because of the risks and costs of this law.

As we continue to review information and discussion about CPSIA and the text of the law itself, it’s clear there is a lot of confusion about this law. The American Library Association admits after getting everybody alarmed that it doesn’t understand the law and how it will impact libraries in its post Children’s Books and the CPSIA – STANDBY – Situation Fluid.

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(Click here for our complete coverage of CPSIA.)

Unless the US government acts soon, on February 10, 2009, life as we know it in the United States may become extremely bizarre. Imagine a nation in which it is illegal for:

• Children age 12 and under to enter libraries or attend schools or daycare facilities unless those schools and daycare facilities have no books or toys.

• Books and toys for children age 12 and under can only be sold by mass-merchants because home and small businesses and manufacturers cannot afford the testing costs to verify paper, cardboard, glue, and other components do not have illegal levels of lead.

• Only major publishers running huge print-runs can print children’s books because only they can afford the testing costs.

• If you can find anybody willing to risk selling you a used children’s book, either they will be criminals or buying a used children’s book will cost upwards of $150 per title because each book will have to be individually tested for lead and phthalates.

• Tens of thousands of US home and small businesses which have made a major portion of their sales from children’s products go out of business and file for bankruptcy as their inventories go from having value to being worthless because they cannot be sold.

This is all due to the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008. The new law requires that products intended for use by children ages 12 and under must meet new standards for lead and phthalate content or they cannot be sold starting February 10, 2009. The law does not have any grandfather provisions for products made prior to February 10, 2009. It apparently affects all products intended for use by children age 12 and under. And it is being interpreted as affecting operations that sell, lend, or allow the use of children’s products by children ages 12 and under.

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Ron Lasorsa was a victim of a false restraining order. He fought the divorce system and founded the Kids Come First Coalition to help other fathers fight false restraining orders and false abuse allegations. He’s offering a free e-book, a blog, informative videos, and other information at his website Restraining Order 911.

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(Click here for our complete coverage of CPSIA.)

As reported last week (see Government Bans Sale of Used Children’s Clothing and Toys !?!), the impending enforcement of the Consumer Products Safety Improvement Act of 2008 starting on February 10, 2009, will change the landscape for children’s clothing and toy sales in the United States. New 600ppm limits on lead will be enforced immediately, and those limits will be lowered to 300ppm and next to 100ppm. Phthalates used to soften plastics must comprise less than 0.1% of the product content. Sellers must be able to show the items they are selling have passed safety tests for lead and phtalate content or they cannot sell the products. The new regulations pertain to products intended for use by children age 12 and under.

A major criticism of this law has been the negative impact on the resale of used children’s clothing and toys. Many consignment shops and charity organizations sell such items, and parents are able to get back some of the value of toys and clothes their children have outgrown. There have been widespread complaints that the new law has the potential to put such businesses out of business.

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(Click here for more coverage of Borderline Personality Disorder.)

I’d like to encourage people who are aware of Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) to start spreading the news about how devastating this illness is not just for those who have it and their family members, but for the entire United States economy.

I wrote this post to explain to people who may not have the ability to understand how horrific BPD is from personal experience dealing with an afflicted person. Such people can still likely understand the economic impact of this illness and how it would be far more cost-effective for US mental health care policies to be overhauled to raise awareness and get most of the victims into treatment. The increased government spending appears that it would be entirely offset by savings in government expenses (in such areas of courts and law enforcement) and increases in tax revenues due to a significant improvement in worsened productivity harming families affected by BPD.

Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is a devastating but very common mental illness that until recently has been believed based upon DSM-IV (Diagnostics and Statistic Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th edition — a widely used reference book in the mental health field) to affect about 2% of the US population or about 6 million people in the US. Common belief is that it afflicts women about 3 times more often than men.

Recent research published in April 2008 suggests that 6% of the population may be affected and the difference between rates for males and females may be little. If this research is accurate, the United States with its population of about 300 million people has 18 million victims of BPD.

The result of BPD is a catastrophic cycle of child abuse and mental illness that runs for generations. The economic impact of this illness is worse than a 9/11/2001 terror attack each and every year. US mental health care policies are badly in need of an overhaul to deal with BPD and similar personality disorders and the drastic economic impact they have on any tens of millions of US citizens.

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Master Cleanser is a detox program created by Stanley Burroughs in 1941 and made famous (and infamous) by celebrities, such as Beyoncé, Robin Quivers, Gweneth Paltrow and Jared Leto. Because of its large use of lemons and maple syrup, it is also known as the Lemon Cleanse, the Lemonade Diet or the Maple Syrup Diet.

The program can be done for 10 up to 40 days (yikes!) with the main ingredients being the juice of organic lemons, organic maple syrup (preferably Grade B), and cayenne pepper mixed with distilled water. A herbal laxative tea like Senna and a sea salt water solution is also consumed on a daily basis to help the cleansing and detoxifying process.

Sound enticing? How could this possibly be healthy or nutritious? And why would anyone in their right mind want to drink lemon and salty water for 10 days?

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(Click here for our complete coverage of CPSIA.)

The Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 (CPSIA) was signed into law by President George W. Bush on August 14, 2008. Starting February 10, 2009, the law bans the sale or resale of products for children age 12 or under that have not been tested to show they contain less than 600ppm of lead and less than 0.1% of certain phthalates (a plastic softener). The law includes plans to move to a 100ppm limit later and force vendors to accept returns of products sold after February 10, 2009, that did not meet the future lower limits.

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(Click here for more coverage of preventing canker sores.)

What are Canker Sores?

Painful is what they are! Canker sores are round or irregular breaks in the mucous membranes in the mouth, tongue, or throat. They typically vary in size from a couple millimeters in width to more than 10 millimeters in width. (For Americans, think 1/8 inch to 1/2 inch.) They tend to be very painful, especially when irritated through contact with a toothbrush and acidic foods. Often they take weeks to heal. Fortunately, they are not contagious.

For whatever reason, canker sores seem to be more common in women than men. About 10% or more of the population suffers from them on a regular basis. If your parents or siblings have them, you are more likely to have them, too. So there’s probably some genetic reason for susceptibility, but nobody knows what it is yet.

My Personal Misery and My “Secret Cure”

I used to get canker sores often, generally more than once per month. Often I had two or three of them at a time. Sometimes my mouth would be so painful that it was hard to eat. Even more embarrassing, sometimes the pain would be bad enough that I’d talk strangely and people would ask what was wrong with me. I can recall being like this for more than two decades from my childhood onward. My triggers for them were stress and lack of sleep. It was really obvious that if I got less than 6 hours sleep, I’d almost be sure to have one or more canker sores within a day or two.

Today, I don’t have those problems any more. That’s true even when I can’t sleep at all for a day, something that used to trigger multiple canker sores. What’s the secret to the improvement? My dentist suggested that I take lysine.

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Those of you who found the posts on William Stoneking’s ongoing problems (click here to see them all) at the hands of the Missouri family law courts may be interested to know that Mr. Stoneking has a blog documenting his continuing battles to see his daughter Alexis. After re-establishing contact with Alexis for a while, his ex has yet again blocked his access. As of January 2009, he hasn’t seen or talked with his daughter in about 6 months. His ex, Shirley Anne Lincoln, is apparently in violation of the custody orders that Alexis should have spent summer 2008 in Illinois with her father.

This case is apparently full of problems with parental alienation, violation of court orders, perjury, and other problems associated with high-conflict divorces involving child custody. If you’re going through such an experience, Mr. Stoneking’s thoughts may be useful to you.

William Stoneking’s Blog: Victims of Family Court Violence & Corruption