Nanny State Law Gets Books Burned
The latest round of nanny state legislation finds Congress protecting your children from daily exposure to dangerous chemicals commonly found in items not usually considered dangerous, such as books. Everyone is aTwitter about it, and Laurie Sutton wrote me to let me know about the article in City Journal.
“…under a law Congress passed last year aimed at regulating hazards in children’s products, the federal government has now advised that children’s books published before 1985 should not be considered safe and may in many cases be unlawful to sell or distribute. Merchants, thrift stores, and booksellers may be at risk if they sell older volumes, or even give them away, without first subjecting them to testing—at prohibitive expense. Many used-book sellers, consignment stores, Goodwill outlets, and the like have accordingly begun to refuse new donations of pre-1985 volumes, yank existing ones off their shelves, and in some cases discard them en masse.”
The fine for selling a pre-1985 children’s book to a child or for “children’s use”? $100,000 in fines, and prison. The law covers ANY item sold to children or for children which does not meet draconian testing standards, including handmade crafts and goods.
Can you knit junior a sweater? No, he might eat it and ingest lead. Or something.
Oh my goodness.
Go read and see if you think this law is as dumb as I think it is.
In the meantime, you will throw my first edition of Howard Pyle’s The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood on the junk heap when you pry it from my cold, dead fingers you nanny state bastards.
c
PS: Beware the quarter comic book bin!
March 15th, 2009 at 4:49 pm
Book burning – “1984″ wasn’t meant to be an instruction manual, people!
So many of the books my mom read to me predate 1985 and she still has them too, uses some in her classroom.
So reading material is bad, where was this rigorous testing on toys?
March 15th, 2009 at 4:51 pm
I gave nearly all of my books to my local Japanese library. And a couple of them were about a hundred years old (and in really ratty condition, unfortunately). Sheesh!
March 15th, 2009 at 5:13 pm
Apparently, this wacky new law applies to anything that may be manufactured or sold to children. Clothes, books, toys.
I’d run out to grab all the vintage books I could, but I am informed the local Goodwills have already dumped their books. The shelves are nearly empty of children’s books. And I still can’t go out and play.
There’s a loophole in this law that applies to collectible books, but I’m wondering how that would apply to old comics being sold for chump change. Or library books. Or those massive library book sales. What of those annual shows where the library makes money by selling donated stock or poorly circulated copies?
I used to have a pretty extensive collection of old children’s books, but sold many years ago when self publishing ate my wallet. I won’t be selling anymore, that’s for sure.
The thought of a black market in old children’s books amuses the heck out of me.
March 15th, 2009 at 5:18 pm
And could someone name me a single instance of a child being harmed by the paper/binding/ink of a book they weren’t being hit in the head with by another child?
Seriously, what disease are we supposed to be subjecting children to when we let them read an old edition of Nancy Drew?
March 15th, 2009 at 7:17 pm
I’m guessing the affliction would be reading for the fun of it and not for some standardized test. Plus, how do you define what is a collectible book? Certain classics may apply, but does a run of Berenstein Bears books mean the equivalent of salmonella-laced peanut butter?
March 15th, 2009 at 7:58 pm
On top of this stupidity, the SELLER has to provide verification for each ITEM sold that it does not contain lead — mind you, they’re not talking about a shipment of books where you test ONE copy and assume the results stand for all others. EVERY. SINGLE. ITEM. And the tests are not cheap. And the VENDOR has to pay for the tests!
It is the most excessive “we must take care of you” law I have ever heard of, and it needs to be overturned immediately.
March 15th, 2009 at 8:07 pm
Scribbler, thanks for pointing that out. I did not catch that.
I understand crafters and people running small businesses are in a real mess over this one.
It reminds me of a recent state law proposed to penalize small farms, requiring that we use the same standards as major corporate farms. It would forbid small farms from selling their goods at local markets without going through these major tests. It would even forbid making cheeses and milk from one’s own goats or cows and feeding it to one’s own family! And yet no one could point to a single instance in the entire state of the public being poisoned by produce from a small farm.
This whole thing smells. It’s a great way for corporations to weed out small businesses, and they are using nanny state tactics to do it.
There’s a sucker of a Congressman elected every minute. They always fall for this crap, thinking they are doing us a favor.
Please stop protecting us from ourselves.
March 15th, 2009 at 8:15 pm
A conspiracy nut may speculate that the publishers may want people to buy the newly released versions of the books instead of getting them second hand.
So much for caring about the small business owners. There are way too many who use the “protect the children” excuse to justify passing some draconian laws.
March 15th, 2009 at 8:17 pm
Count me in as a conspiracy nut. I actually thought of that, too.
Won’t somebody think of the children???
March 15th, 2009 at 8:26 pm
This from the same people who say that the mercury derivative used in vaccines isn’t harmful. I guess it depends on who is greasing their palms as to what is harmful and what falls within the safety guidelines. But that’s a topic for another time.
So much for buying affordable entertainment for the children at thrift shops in these tough economic times; that and trying to sell them via thrift shops, eBay, etc.
March 15th, 2009 at 9:14 pm
I’m aghast. I am devoted to thrift shop buying. When I was really poor, I didn’t buy any clothes that didn’t come second hand, and I dressed in nothing but designer clothes. There are great bargains to be found at the Goodwill. I helped furnish a friend’s apartment with bin diving and did plenty for my own benefit. I still shop at the local Goodwill which benefits the SPCA.
Lots of poor people can’t afford to buy new things. I can’t think of any cases of people being harmed by their thrift shop purchases.
Who is this law supposed to be for?
March 15th, 2009 at 9:17 pm
And I ask again: what about those cheap old comic books?
March 15th, 2009 at 9:48 pm
Can you knit junior a sweater? No, he might eat it and ingest lead.
When I was five, I swallowed a penny. If only there had been legislation to protect me. Where the hell was Congress when I needed them?
No, seriously — losing that penny was a big deal. In 1975 you could still get a gumball with a penny. I was instructed by my mother not to attempt a salvage and recovery operation under any circumstances, though.
Seriously, kids are more resilient than our legislators realize. When I was a lad, we used to entertain ourselves by shoving firecrackers up GI Joe’s rear end and blowing his hiney to kingdom come. Good God, my mother would’ve been relieved to have me read a book with some trace chemicals in it instead!
March 15th, 2009 at 10:18 pm
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March 15th, 2009 at 11:55 pm
So where are all these dangerous, lead-filled books going to go? Into the landfill, to poison the soil for centuries. At least those bad bad books won’t affect our kids — just later generations of them. Sheesh.