Government Affairs: CPSIA

January 2009

The Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act, enacted in August of last year, imposes stringent requirements for lead-content testing of toys and other children’s products. Beginning February 10, any children’s product found to contain more than the new limits on lead content as a result of such testing will be treated as a banned hazardous substance under the Federal Hazardous Substances Act.

Although paper-based books are not “regulated products” within the jurisdiction of the Consumer Product Safety Commission and have no history of presenting toxic risks to children due to lead content, the Commission’s Office of General Counsel, responding two weeks ago to a request for an advisory opinion by the Association of American Publishers and allied industries on the limited application of CPSIA testing requirements to such books, has opined that “a book intended or designed primarily for children would need to meet” the new lead content limits and thus must be tested to determine whether they are safe for children’s use. The advisory opinion reached this conclusion despite the AAP’s efforts to distinguish actual, paper-based books from plastic children’s toys in the shape or form of books that are intended to be played with or serve as teething devices for young children, and despite a broad showing of actual test results demonstrating that the ink, paper, paperboard, adhesive and binding components of actual paper-based books do not present a risk of lead toxicity to children.

If the CPSIA is applied to paper-based books, as indicated in the advisory opinion of the CPSC General Counsel, children’s book publishers, manufacturers and distributors will be confronted with a choice of nightmarish scenarios in which actual, paper-based books – not plastic toys in the shape of books – must either be needlessly subjected to expensive and time-consuming testing that will clog the queues of accredited laboratories for testing of actual children’s toys and other children’s products potentially presenting real threats of lead toxicity, or needlessly pulled off the shelves of our nation’s classrooms, public and school libraries, bookstores and textbook warehouses based on unfounded toxicity concerns. Either scenario will have severe adverse affects on our children’s education.

For more information on AAP's efforts regarding the CPSIA please contact:

Allan Adler
VP for Legal & Government Affairs
202-347-3375
aadler@publishers.org

More information:

• AAP Letter Requesting CPSC General Counsel Advisory Opinion, Dec. 4, 2008 (PDF)
• CPSC General Counsel Opinion re: CPSIA and Books, Dec. 23, 2008 (PDF)
• CPSC General Counsel Opinion re: CPSIA and Books, Jan. 15, 2009 (PDF)
• Background information about the CPSIA can be found at cpsc.gov