The Idiots in Congress Don’t Read
It is hard to believe that our elected representatives signed a bill for hundreds of billions of dollars and never read a word, but it’s true. However, this is not the first time: under a law passed by our irresponsible Congress last year was their ill conceived approach to regulating products for children that contain lead.
I agree, paint containing lead that can chip off of a toy and be placed into the mouth of a child is dangerous, but that is hardly the case when it comes to books where ink does not chip off of its pages.
The federal government has now advised that books for children published before 1985 should not be considered safe and may in many cases be unlawful to sell or even give away.
Bookstores, thrift stores may be at legal risk if they sell older volumes without first subjecting them to testing, at prohibitive expense. I just published a new children’s book which I had tested and it cost me $150.00.
How many book in our warehouse can we afford to test before selling or worse, going broke? Many used-book sellers have begun to refuse new donations of pre 1985 volumes, and are removing what they have from their shelves in this draconian new law in fear of potential lawsuits. So, what is the alternative? It has been arrogantly suggested that books printed before 1985 be burned. How compelling that we resort to Nazi style solutions instead of a realistic approach to solving the problem.
Like the current stimulus bill that has been shoved down our throats without a single lawmaker reading the 900 page bill before voting on it, this same Congress, after the panic over lead painted toys from China passed the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 (CPSIA). Among its other draconian provisions, CPSIA imposed tough new limits on lead in any products intended for use by children under the age of 12 and made the limits retroactive: in other words, goods manufactured before the law passed cannot be sold on the used market (even in garage sales or on eBay) So it says to small business owners, eat it!
Since many products for children have included lead containing (if harmless) components such as snaps and zippers on garments and backpacks and countless other products containing metal alloy including things like rhinestones and beads. This law will destroy more companies or financially ruin many at a time when unemployment is at 10 percent and in California 17% and is headed for the stratosphere in coming months. Have our elected representatives lost their minds?
The insanity of this measure with a new retroactive aspect on playthings and articles that contain plastic softening chemicals known as phthalates you suddenly have tens of millions of common items that have become unlawful to resell. Penalties under the law are strict and can include $100,000 fines and prison time, regardless of whether any child is harmed. Sound like something Nancy Pelosi would add to a piece of legislation. Common sense has been thrown out of the window along with the baby and the bath water.
For decades lead pigments in inks, dyes and paints were used in books for children, particularly in the great age of illustrated books at the turn of the 20th century. While lead poisoning from paint in old houses remains a serious public health problem, no one seems able to produce any evidence in which an American child has been made ill by the lead in ink in old illustrated books, and for good reason, book pigments do not flake off for a child to put into their mouth and I do not ever recall hearing about an epidemic of children licking books.
The New York Times, whose editorial pages vigorously supported the passage of CPSIA is a major newspaper that also covered the book and apparel business but has remained entirely silent on the law in recent months. The New York Times company slogan, All the News That’s fit to Print, is hypocrisy at its finest, about as absurd as this new law that will destroy small companies like mine and thrown hundreds of thousands of our citizens out of work in a goal to have a non functioning economy as the byproduct of political correctness run a muck.
About the author
William Dorich is the author of 7 books including his current titles, Defeat Foreclosure and The Nursing Home Crisis. He established his publishing firm in 1985 and has published 150 titles including: Witness to War for the Los Angeles Times which won a pulitzer. http://www.gmbooks.comTags: books for children, lead, lead poison, printing, Publishing