I went into the school library or media center, as it's called these days, to reserve a TV and DVD player and I asked the media specialist, formerly the librarian, how it's going. He then proceeds to tell me how plans are being made to get all of the books printed prior to 1985 out of the library. Apparently, the new law enacted to protect us from the lead the Chinese have been sending us in toys and jewelry, has a provision to protect children from the lead contained in printing ink. So, childrens books cannot be loaned out from the libraries and they can't be resold by places like Goodwill or other book stores, if printed before 1985.
As a guy who reads the newspaper, I was aware of the effects of the law on the motorcycle and ATV industry. You can no longer by a mini bike because of the lead in the valve stems on the tires but I had no idea that this absurdity extended to childrens books. Who the hell thought this craziness up? And equally important, why the hell wasn't this front page news? What's going to happen to Chuggy and the Blue Caboose or the Little Red Hen? I realize small children should not be exposed to lead at any level but how much could they possibly ingest from eating library books or valve stems? Those of us who grew up with lead based paints and leaded gasoline don't have to worry about our grandkids getting hit with that, fortunately, but if the Consumer Product Safety Commission would have been on the job and kept the tainted Chinese crap where it belonged, we wouldn't have to have this idiotic over reaction. Man, you couple this up with the National Animal Identification System and this country really has gone loco. Maybe even
"mad as a hatter".
Nice little article on the subject at the Washington Post.
4 comments:
So am I to understand that all of the books in our libraries were made or printed in China prior to 1985? What happened to Simon & Schuster. (not in spell check). And you forgot to put in the best part, about how a kid would have to eat 186 books before it would harm them.
IT SEEMS AS IF THE WORLD GETS CURIOSER AND CURIOSER, DOES IT NOT?
TVI
Domestikdeva: All children's books printed before lead was outlawed in late 70's. They picked 1985 just to be "safe". Also it was 16 books they had to eat - don't know how big the books.
tvi: Boy, Howdy!
Welcome to the Jungle, Bro. Just another example of how far off the deep end that "Our Leaders" have gone. They seem to have forgotten that they work for us.
Don't bother complaining to the Senators from out state. They're all happy ass about both of the programs you mentioned. Odd that neither program really had any Congressional debate.
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