The Hill (3/6, Snyder) reports, “New lead standards Congress adopted last year in response to fears about toy safety are entangling a range of products, including library books and youth all-terrain vehicles, that critics say the law was never intended to cover.” However, “as businesses pull products off their floors to avoid steep fines, Democrats in Congress and regulators at the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) are fighting over who is responsible for the confusion and who has the power to fix it.”
Libraries continue to fight against lead law. The Fort Worth Star-Telegram (3/6, Tinsley) reports, “The new federal law designed to protect children from dangerous exposure to lead continues to have repercussions far beyond the toy and paint industries.” An exemption “for books printed since 1985″ allowed libraries and retailers to avoid pulling ‘millions of books from their shelves.” However, “last month, the government approved a one-year enforcement delay for those books in libraries, but librarians and retailers think it’s ridiculous to apply the new anti-lead rules to children’s books and they want a permanent reprieve from the rules.”
Motorcycle trade group seeks exemption from lead law. The AP (3/5, Logan) reported, “A national motorcycle trade group says dealers across the country cannot sell roughly $100 million worth of the child-sized bikes. Including parts, service, accessories and personnel, the market could lose nearly $1 billion annually, according to the Motorcycle Industry Council.” Arguing that motorcycles “don’t pose a threat to kids,” the motorcycle trade group is seeking an exemption from the law.
