The new law meant to stop children from getting lead poison makes it illegal to sell children’s books published before 1985 — even at thrift shops or yard sales — so stores are throwing them out!!!
Here’s more.
Why in the world couldn’t some guy have penned in, "Oh, books are okay." Children seldom eat them…and this is coming from someone whose children have eaten a great deal more paper than most!
More info: The Common Room
Bookstore fighting back: you have to page down.
And a bit more.
Here’s my question:
Why 12? Why not 6?
Other than my son, who is a special case, what 8, 10, or 12 year old goes around eatting their stuff? Paint, I understand, but zippers? Bikes!!! What kid eats his bike parts? (And if he does he has a worse problem than lead poisoning.) Even ball point pens may be in danger.
(This info courtesy of Tiny Mammoth. There is more info in the discussion there.)
Re. the question of why choosing 12 as the cutoff age when most children (barring issues such as autism) have ceased to put everything in their mouths by the time they reach kindergarten, 12 is last point before children pass into teenhood, and thus are no longer perceived as being so vulnerable and in need of protection. It’s also the point at which most children go through the physiological changes of puberty, at which time the proportions of the face and body shift to adult configuration and no longer trigger the hardwired protective responses of adults.
But the law in general is a perfect example of an overreaction to a real but limited problem that creates a cure worse than the disease. It’s the crooked Chinese manufacturers that should be feeling the heat, not used-book sellers or crafters producing tiny numbers of all-natural wood toys.
i think these stores are over reacting
Technically, isn’t it books printed before 1985, not books published before 1985? I’m hoping the bookstore employees are making that distinction!
Either way–throwing them out is a stupid solution to a virtually non-existent problem. Just puts what lead there might be in the books where it’s guaranteed to make its way into the water supply eventually.
12 is the age when they (for some anonymous definition of they) have decided that the ‘children’s consumer market’ ends and the ‘teen consumer market’ begins. And it seems to be considered an unchanging line, despite the fact that 8 and 9 year old girls are now shopping on the teen/adult market for things like cosmetics (which can contain higher levels of the hazardous substances than toys do).
*sigh*
Re. the question of why choosing 12 as the cutoff age when most children (barring issues such as autism) have ceased to put everything in their mouths by the time they reach kindergarten, 12 is last point before children pass into teenhood, and thus are no longer perceived as being so vulnerable and in need of protection. It’s also the point at which most children go through the physiological changes of puberty, at which time the proportions of the face and body shift to adult configuration and no longer trigger the hardwired protective responses of adults.
But the law in general is a perfect example of an overreaction to a real but limited problem that creates a cure worse than the disease. It’s the crooked Chinese manufacturers that should be feeling the heat, not used-book sellers or crafters producing tiny numbers of all-natural wood toys.
Even though I’m not living in the US, it’s still going to hurt (all those books that can no longer be bought via Abebooks).
I went and looked at my bookcases, I hadn’t realized how many pre-1985 children’s books I own! We use the 1980 Childcraft books all the time.
And there’s all my old books.
i think these stores are over reacting
Technically, isn’t it books printed before 1985, not books published before 1985? I’m hoping the bookstore employees are making that distinction!
Either way–throwing them out is a stupid solution to a virtually non-existent problem. Just puts what lead there might be in the books where it’s guaranteed to make its way into the water supply eventually.
12 is the age when they (for some anonymous definition of they) have decided that the ‘children’s consumer market’ ends and the ‘teen consumer market’ begins. And it seems to be considered an unchanging line, despite the fact that 8 and 9 year old girls are now shopping on the teen/adult market for things like cosmetics (which can contain higher levels of the hazardous substances than toys do).
*sigh*
Okay… a comment disappeared. That was weird!
Even though I’m not living in the US, it’s still going to hurt (all those books that can no longer be bought via Abebooks).
I went and looked at my bookcases, I hadn’t realized how many pre-1985 children’s books I own! We use the 1980 Childcraft books all the time.
And there’s all my old books.
Okay… a comment disappeared. That was weird!