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How Your Government Saved Your Children From Books

Feb 11, 2009
By Ken.
Politics & Current Events

Just how bad is the Consumer Products Safety Improvement Act, which Patrick has diligently covered here? Well, Walter Olson demonstrates that it has led the Consumer Products Safety Commission to advise thrift shops, secondhand stores, and others to throw out books if they were made before 1985, and if the shops cannot pay for ruinously expensive and impractical testing:

To take just one example, that of resale, thrift and consignment stores, the CPSC guidance advises that such stores discard, or refuse to accept donations of, a very wide range of children’s items unless they are willing to test the items for lead or call their original manufacturer — neither of which steps is consistent with the economics of an ordinary small thrift store. Included in the suspect list are most children’s clothing (because most of it has snaps, buttons, zippers, grommets or other closures with unknown/unproved metal or plastic content), most books that were printed before 1985 or that (even if more recent) include metal or plastic elements such as staples* or spiral binders; most playthings (dolls, balls, trains, toy cars, etc.), most shoes and hair ornaments, most sporting goods, outdoor play items and wagons, board games when including any plastic spinners, tokens or other items, all bicycles and tricycles in kids’ sizes, most decorations for kids’ rooms, nearly everything with metal or synthetic applique, most school, art and science supplies, and on and on.

Over at Defending People, Mark Bennett has some apt commentary. What are the chances of Congress doing anything competent in the wake of this example of its own incompetence? Slim and none.

Last 5 posts by Ken

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3 Comments

  1. Patrick  •  Feb 11, 2009 @3:55 pm

    One of my clients, a program which provides rehabilitation options for substance abusers outside the criminal justice system (which never rehabilitates drug abuse) runs a thrift store to finance its work.

    They’re no longer accepting stuff for kids. So the poor kids whose parents have to buy stuff from thrift stores get nothing, and the treatment options for people with drug problems are cut back, at least in my community.

    All so that Congress can avoid owning up to a mistake, and a few lawyers can make money to which they’re not entitled, and a few Naderite groups like NRDC and Public Citizen can keep getting donations from lawyers.

    I’m not a fan of South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint, or of South Carolina, or of Republicans, and especially not of South Carolina Republicans, but I give DeMint credit for trying to fix the problem. A problem, I’ll note, that he helped create. He voted for this bill. Only Ron Paul is without blame on this law.

    Still, at least DeMint’s trying to fix it, and there’s no indication money is involved. The small businesses that the CPSIA will ruin don’t have PACs or lobbyists.

  2. DeputyHeadmistress  •  Feb 11, 2009 @6:36 pm

    Senator DeMint did NOT VOTE for this bill. The voting records are public, and Ron Paul is only the sole member of the HOUSE to vote against it.

    THIRTEEN Republican Senators voted no on the first version. On the final version where his vote really counted- Ron Paul did *not vote at all* and only three Republican Senators stuck to their guns and voted no. Senators Demint, Kyl, and some guy whose name starts with a C voted against the bill EVERY time.

    DeMint not only voted against it, he circulated (at the time) a talking points list of a lot of the problems with it, for which he was pretty much crucified by the consumer groups pushing it. DeMint not only did NOT help create this problem, he’s been the sole politician who has worked hardest to fix it.

  3. Tatiana von Tauber  •  Feb 15, 2009 @8:29 am

    There you go. It was the lacking sense and intellect of the pre-1985 generations that f*cked up. I mean, come on, it’s amazing us 70′s kids ever made it this far. Maybe some of us hit our heads too hard when we dared to ride a bike w/o a helmet. Kids these days are guaranteed safety.

    Having owned a used bookshop with a children’s section, who knows how many children I put in danger. Will those kids who got an old copy of Dick and Jane ever recover? Poor children. They may just turn into a bunch of dicks like their predecessors. And to think, I just thought I was giving the parents a great deal on a book for their kids while helping to recycle. I’m so pleased to be aware of the dangers my good deads were doing.

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