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(Click here for our complete coverage of CPSIA.)

With the days ticking away without meaningful clarification or reform of CPSIA (Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008), there’s not a lot of “real news” to report. So we thought we’d feed you some links to the thoughts of others on this dysfunctional legislation.

CPSC: Letter to Association of American Publishers on December 23, 2008

Consumer Reports: Toymakers and resellers raise concerns over new safety regulations

Wall Street Journal: Pelosi’s Toy Story

Mom-Based Garment Industry May Be Hardest Hit By New Safety Regs

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

If you’ve got a loved one or former loved one who has BPD, you’re likely to need a lot of emotional support to deal with the problems they present for you. Some may be lucky enough to have a relative with BPD who has gotten past the denial and is actively working on learning to improve behaviors. If you’re not so lucky, you may be in need of legal advice in family law, civil, and criminal arenas as Borderlines in pain and denial tend to lash out at their family or ex-family, as the case may be.

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

In a previous posting BPD prevalence may be 6%, 3 times higher than previously thought, we pointed out a study that estimates 5.9% of the US population suffers from Borderline Personality Disorder. That study was based upon the Wave 2 National Epidemiologic Survey conducted in 2004 to 2005 using interviews of approximately 35,000 Americans. The study results were published in 2008.

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

It was a welcome change to see mainstream media paying some serious attention to Borderline Personality Disorder for a change. This week, TIME has a major article (with a blurb on their cover!) about BPD. You can find it at The Mystery of Borderline Personality Disorder. They even mention the latest statistics showing about 18 million people in the US being afflicted with this mental illness. If you’ve been reading our site, you may have noticed our posting BPD prevalence may be 6%, 3 times higher than previously thought on the studies that came to these conclusions a few weeks ago.

For some reason, TIME left about 1.5 columns of the first page of the article just blank, with no text or pictures. And they mentioned very little about how Borderlines affect other people. Nothing is said about high-conflict divorces, distortion campaigns, child abuse, and passing along mental illness to their children via child abuse. That was a major disappointment. TIME only covered a small part of the full story of BPD by leaving that out.

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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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