Prepared by Carol Baicker-McKee, Ph.D.Contact: baickermckee@gmail.com
CPSIA and Vintage BooksBackground
The CPSC granted some relief from the onus of the CPSIA to publishers, booksellers, schools, libraries, literacy groups and others when it granted a stay of enforcement for “ordinary children’s books” printed after 1985. Additional relief wasgiven to collectors by further exempting books too old or valuable to be used by children. Nonetheless, these guidelines leave many books unnecessarily classified as probable“banned hazardous waste” which imperils businesses, institutions, and of course,children.
Vintage Books Are Safe
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There are no cases
ever
of books contributing to a case of lead poisoning.
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The CDC ranks books a 0.5 on a 1 to 10 scale of risk for lead poisoning
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Book ink does not rub off on hands, lead cannot be leached from the ink by handoils or saliva. Only ingestion leads to possible absorption. Eating books is rareand usually occurs only when a child has pica, a medical condition.
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Preliminary testing from CPSC found only a few books in the 300 ppm range;Half Price Books testing of a random sample of 44 books published between 1970and 1985 found none.
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High exposure to children’s books is correlated with good outcomes on thevariables associated with lead poisoning (such as school achievement, ADHD,learning disabilities, antisocial and aggressive behavior. Similarly, groups withthe lowest exposure to books typically fare worst on these variables. (You’dexpect the reverse correlation if lead in books were a problem.)
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The CDC recommends a mentally stimulating environment for children at risk of or suffering from lead poisoning because both human and animal studies haveshown an enriched environment can prevent and treat low to moderate lead poisoning; books are an inexpensive, effective way to stimulate children’s brains.
A Continued Ban on Older Books Harms Businesses, Institutions and Children
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There are tens of millions to hundreds of millions of vintage books still incirculation and use by children.
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Emily Sheketoff, president of the American Library Association, estimates thereare tens of millions of vintage books on the shelves of libraries alone. Schools andchildcare facilities also have many older books in their libraries and classroomcollections. Literacy programs also use many older books.
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Millions of books printed after 1985 will also be lost, as many publishers did not provide print dates, only copyright or publication dates on books.
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Used booksellers are suffering tremendously. One seller lost half her stock onFeb. 10
th
; another tossed $4000 of inventory; Half Price Books has removedthousands of books to warehouses. There are probably thousands of small used booksellers that have been affected.
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