Toys with dangerous levels of lead, toxic chemicals in clothing, hazardous baby cribs -- the soon-to-be-enforced Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act aims to protect children from all of them.But library books?
Unless the Consumer Product Safety Commission exempts them from the sweeping legislation, libraries nationwide could be forced to pull children’s books from their shelves or, alternately, ban children.
That would put roughly 2 million public library books — plus children’s books in school libraries — in the Kansas City area out of commission unless each volume was tested for lead, an unrealistic possibility.
“You’re talking about separating children from books, which has got to be the most ridiculous thing this commission has ever attempted,” said Emily Sheketoff, executive director of the American Library Association’s Washington office.
The federal law, which takes effect Feb. 10, requires that all children’s products be certified free of harmful levels of lead, whether they ever were suspected of containing lead or not. The 63-page act does not specifically mention books.
Read the complete story at kansascity.com