Congress and the Law of Unintended Consequences

[askeladd]

I'm surprised no one's mentioned this yet:

http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6627969.htmlIndustry

(http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6627969.htmlIndustry)First paragraph:

The children’s book industry is currently dealing with a new and pressing challenge that is threatening publishers, bookstores, libraries and schools. It’s not the economy or school spending or reading rates—it is a recent act of Congress, which has blindsided the industry with the implementation of stiff safety standards on all children’s products, and whose application to books is vague. It has left many publishers, retailers and industry groups scrambling to interpret the law and determine what kinds of compliance will be required, and at what cost.There were concerns about how this legislation would affect resale shops, but supposedly a clarification was issued yesterday that implied that resellers would be exempt. AFAIK, however, the children's book industry is still in danger of being ensnared in this knee-jerk legislation.

[Exir]

Can anyone familiar with law explain how this will affect Children's Books? Thanks!

[askeladd]

Libraries and schools could also be caught up in the mess: Congress bans kids from libraries? (http://thephoenix.com/Boston/News/74940-Congress-bans-kids-from-libraries/)

First three paragraphs:

Is it possible that Congress has just inadvertently turned millions of children’s books into contraband? At the moment, anything seems possible with regard to the sprawling, 62-page Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA), passed this past August with overwhelming margins in both the House (424-1) and the Senate (89-3).

The CPSIA, intended to keep lead out of toys, may well also keep books out of libraries, says Emily Sheketoff, associate executive director of the American Library Association.

“We are very busy trying to come up with a way to make it not apply to libraries,” said Sheketoff. But unless she succeeds in lobbying Capitol Hill for an exemption, she believes libraries have two choices under the CPSIA: “Either they take all the children’s books off the shelves,” she says, “or they ban children from the library.”

Just about anyone that has anything to do with the 12-and-under crowd is under potential threat of "test for lead and phthalates or else." The whole thing is so ridiculous, it's hard to imagine the legislation proceeding as currently written. But then again, we're talking about Congress here, not to mention the CPSC (an unelected - and therefore unaccountable to the citizenry - group of TWO people that is making the rules up as they go along, it seems).

[Exir]

Ouch. Does this law only apply to libraries? Or may bookstores be banned from selling children's books as well?

To quote Roald Dahl: nincompoop!

[Pamster]

OMG this is just awful they can't expect to blanket books into this law can they???