Wednesday, March 18, 2009

What? The CPSC didn't say what it said? Libraries are not criminals?

What! I've heard of the right hand not knowing what the left is doing, but the latest news is astounding and more confusing than ever. The CPSC doesn't know what the CPSIA is supposed to do, and members of the CPSC don't know what each other does or should do.

As Walter Olson on Overlawyered, "CPSC: No, we didn’t ask libraries to pull pre-1985 books," wrote, an associated press article yesterday quoted Scott Wolfson, a spokesman for the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). Wolfson's message, as found also here this morning, stated that libraries should take steps to put pre-1985 books out of reach for children.

Now,commission chief of staff, Joe Martyak, says that Wolfson “misspoke." He says the commission never made any such recommendation. Huh?

Another CPSC commissioner, Thomas Moore, declared a few weeks ago that a large section of older books should be be “sequestered” from children for the time being.

When will the government admit defeat and scrap this poorly written law that does not protect children but harm them?

For updates on the CPSIA debacle, Overlawyered is an excellent source.

Are you as confused as I am? Apparently the CPSC is confused, too. Hmmm ... maybe the members ate too many lead filled books as adults.


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3 comments:

Jean Henry Mead said...

Government regulations are over the top, period! Thank goodness OSHA isn't overseeing the production of children's books, or there wouldn't be any. Pulling pre-1985 books from the shelves is ridiculous!!!

Jean

Stephen Macquignon said...

Is there such a thing as a pre-1985 book for kids? Lets face it Children can be hard on a books

Vivian Zabel said...

Yes, Stephen, there are. Some libraries have estimated that they have 1000s such books in their inventories. In my book shelves, I have pre-1985 books that have gone through my children, my grandchildren, and now my great-grandchildren.