US toy safety issues
Message from Pat Schroeder of AAP 5th February 2009
IMPORTANT UPDATE ON CPSIA FOR CHILDREN'S BOOK PUBLISHERS
To Heads of House,
Please see the attached draft press release, Federal Register Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, and statement and letter by Acting CPSC Chairman Nancy Nord announding the Consumer Product Safety Commission's intention to adopt a one year stay of enforcement of the testing and certification requirements of the CPSIA that are due to become effective on February 10 of this year.
The GOOD news is that publishers and their allies do not have to worry about immediately testing and certifying books to meet the February 10 effective date for the new total lead content limits; the BAD news is that the stay of enforcement does not apply to the prohibition against distributing children's products that exceed those new total lead content limits after that date.
The stay means, for all practical purposes, the Commission will not be checking for testing and certification and will not be looking to see whether books already in commerce violate the lead limits. Whether publishers can stop worrying about the retroactive applicability of the CPSIA to inventory for the duration of the stay depends entirely upon whether their book-selling distribution accounts will be calmed by the announcement and will stop insisting on immediate certification of their inventory as some have been doing since early November.
Booksellers have never had any lead issues with books prior to enactment of the CPSIA. Still, since enactment of the new law, many have been spooked by the thought of their own possible liability under the CPSIA for selling books that might fail the new total lead content limits, notwithstanding their past history of having no lead problems with books. While individual publishers can discuss this matter with their distributors, AAP cannot play the same kind of significant organizing and facilitating role in this endeavor as it has played in addressing CPSIA problems with the Congress and the Commission because of antitrust risks.
A key factor in the retailers' response may well be the response of Congress to the Commission's announcements. Unfortunately, as evidenced by the attached letter to President Obama from key Congressional leaders on the CPSIA, it appears that the present response of the Hill is more focused on getting rid of CPSC Acting Chairman Nord than it is on reassuring retailers about the concerns raised due to the new law's retroactive applicability to inventory.
But, stay tuned. AAP, under Allan Adler's leadership, is leading its members and allied suppliers, printers and manufacturers in producing a response to the CPSC science team's January 27 request for documentation in support of the points made in our presentation to the Commission on January 22. (We all thank them for the terrific job they are doing) That response will be a submission to a pending Commission rulemaking seeking a formal determination from the Commission to exempt paper-based books and other printed materials without play value from the CPSIA's testing and certification requirements for total lead content.
We will let you know when the AAP submission has been submitted.
Pat Schroeder