Last Thursday's hearing before the House Committee on Energy and Commerce’s Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade and Consumer Products on a proposed amendment to the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act did not address concerns of publishers. Drafted by Rep. Henry Waxman, the amendment, known as the Consumer Product Safety Enhancement Act (CPSEA), would create more flexibility for the Consumer Product Safety Commission to exempt certain products from the Act’s lead limits. The amendment also would provide relief for thrift stores and other resellers, and for small-batch manufacturers such as makers of handcrafted children’s products.
A focus of the hearings was on the possibility of exempting children’s products that contain lead, such as children’s all-terrain vehicles, where the lead is considered either inaccessible or necessary. The hearing did not, however, address the needs of the book publishing industry, which argues that it should be exempted since virtually no “ordinary” children’s books contain lead above the limits outlined in the CPSIA. Ink-on-paper and ink-on-board children’s books printed after 1985 currently are included under a “stay of enforcement” but are not exempted from the Act’s provisions, although the CPSC recommended they be excluded in a January report to Congress.
“We don’t see the sense of hundreds of thousands of books clogging the queues at the independent third-party testing facilities, only to be found safe, at a great burden of cost to publishers,” said Allan Adler, v-p for legal and government affairs at the Association of American Publishers.
Adler points out that Congress does not seem to be willing at this point to give flexibility to the CPSC to conduct risk assessments, which would benefit the publishing industry since evidence shows the vast majority of books present no risk. Currently, the Commission feels it cannot exempt a category of products unless it is 100% safe, something that is difficult to prove. “We’re glad the Committee and Congress are showing a willingness to reopen the issue,” Adler said. “But the discussion draft [of the proposed amendment] does nothing to address the problems we have.” Adler noted that the current stay of enforcement expires in February 2011 and the publishing industry needs a solution before then. “We have our eye on the calendar.” No matter what happens with “ordinary” children’s books, novelty and book-plus titles (such as those with plastic incorporated or toys attached) will still be subject to the CPSIA’s testing and other requirements.
Witnesses testifying at last week’s hearing included Paul Vitrano, general counsel of the Motorcycle Industry Council, which supports the CPSEA, and Rick Woldenberg, chairman of the educational products company Learning Resources and chair of the Alliance for Children’s Product Safety. Woldenberg argues that the amendment will not address the problems most children’s product manufacturers currently have with the Act and may even give rise to additional issues. Other witnesses invited to testify included representatives from the National Association of Manufacturers, Goodwill Industries International, Handmade Toy Alliance, and the American Apparel and Footwear Association.
For more on the history of the Act and its ramifications on publishers, click here.
