American baby care products are not as safe as consumers may expect. The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics released a report on 48 baby care products that were tested for the carcinogens formaldehyde and 1,4-dioxane. The March 2009 report, entitled “No More Toxic Tub”, reveals that 67 percent of the products tested contained detectable levels of 1,4-dioxane. 82 percent of the products tested contained detectable levels of formaldehyde and 1,4-dioxane. And 61 percent of products tested contained both.
Among the many repercussions of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 (CPSIA) is the banning of lead components inside of children’s products as unlikely to result in lead poisoning as motor sports products for kids, including ATVs and kid-sized dirt bikes and motorcycles. These products use lead in the engines, batteries, and other internal components. The Motorcycle Industry Council estimates that the CPSIA ban on these products will cause economic losses of $1 billion in 2009 alone.
CPSC finally announced some sensible enforcement exceptions pertaining to children’s books and clothing. It looks like libraries and schools are mostly off the hook, so long as they take their children’s books printed before 1985 off the shelves pending testing.
CPSC has yet to issue guidelines that clearly explain reasonable interpretations of CPSIA as applied to libraries and other institutions that own and loan out books and other print materials. As a result, libraries, schools, and similar institutions may have to ban children 12 and under from access to their facilities as of February 10, 2009, or risk being in violation of the law with a risk of up to $100,000 fine per incident and 5 years in prison.
The USDA has fought hard and won in court to ban a beef producer from testing all of its cows for mad cow disease. Thanks, Uncle Sam, we really appreciate your equal opportunity stance on death of beef eaters by holes in their brains!
Despite widespread concerns, the US federal government continues to do nothing much about clarifying the implementation of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008. With the February 10, 2009, enforcement date approaching, retailers, libraries, and thrift stores are still worried about the impact on their operations.
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In the absence of major news of late, here are some links to more recent writings about CPSIA.
Book publishers are joining the fight against interpreting CPSIA to ban conventional books on the grounds that they haven’t been tested for lead and phthalates.
CPSIA 2008 is poised to shut down access to children’s books. CPSC and Congress need to immediately exempt existing library collections of children’s book from this inane law while they fix the mess they created.
Unless changed, the CPSIA 2008 law on February 10, 2009, will effectively make libraries illegal for children ages 12 and under and ban the sale or use of children’s books without testing that could run $150 or more per book. Thanks Uncle Sam!
The Consumer Product Safety Commission released a ruling that exempts resellers of used children’s items from product testing requirement under the CPSIA 2008 law. But small manufacturers of children’s items must still bear the high cost of testing each batch of product, likely putting home and small business operations out of business. Even more twisted, the law appears it could be interpreted to ban all children’s books that have not been safety testing, possibly putting libraries into the awkward position of having to dispose of their children’s book collections and/or ban children age 12 or under.
The Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 (CPSIA) appears to virtually shut down the entire used children’s clothing and toys industry as of February 10, 2009. It may also affects families by banning them from selling used children’s clothing and toys via eBay, craigslist, and other means.
