The Illegal Book Meme

One of the blogs I read is starting an Illegal Book Meme and here's my contribution. As she mentions, these books are not illegal to own, but a new law that many people haven't heard about yet has recently made it illegal to buy, sell or barter books published before 1985 for children ages 12 and under, because of concerns about lead content in the ink.

It's called the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) and you can read more about it on the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission's Website here. Children's books published before 1985 are in danger. Related effects on other children's items are also a concern especially for Stay-At Home moms and others who make specialty items for kids. I have already contacted my congressmen and was disappointed in their response but please contact yours here and here and pass the word along!!

We're still developing our book collection but here are a few we've got already...

Everyone loves Richard Scary!!

This one is one of my Grandma Harris' books.

These were Kurt's when he was a kid.
And these we picked up at the thrift store...by the way, that is one place unaffected according to Senator Feingold's email to me. I added the bold type.

Thank you for contacting me about new children's safety requirements under the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA), and how they would affect resellers of children's products. I appreciate hearing from you.

Under the CPSIA, new requirements go into effect in February 10, 2009, restricting the sale of children's products in the United States that contain more than 600 parts per million total lead, even if the product was manufactured before 2009.

The new law requires that domestic manufacturers and importers certify that children's products made after February 10 meet all new safety standards, including the lead ban. However, sellers of used children's products, such as thrift stores and consignment stores, are not required to certify that those products meet the new lead limits, phthalates standard or new toy standards. Further, the new safety law does not require resellers to test children's products in inventory for compliance with the lead limit before they are sold.

Unfortunately, that doesn't help our local libraries! Keep up the good work Mom!