Lead testing rules under Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act

New lead testing rules set to take effect Feb. 10 have local book sellers, toy retailers, crafters and even libraries scrambling to understand how the rules apply to them.

The Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act imposes stringent new lead testing rules on all products made for children 12 and under. The regulations affect businesses that sell items and covers libraries, which lend out books to children. The impact of the new law, especially in terms of children’s books, is vague, leaving local booksellers, libraries and even schools trying to interpret its meaning and figure out how to comply, and at what cost.

The lead testing regulations were signed into law in August 2008 as a response to the massive recalls involving mostly Chinese-made toys containing lead in 2007. The new rules require all books, toys and handmade crafts be tested for lead, regardless of where they’re manufactured.

Click here to read the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act.

Click here to read the Etsy CPSIA “action kit.”

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10 thoughts on “Lead testing rules under Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act

  1. x-ray fluorescence

    Lead testing is especially important if you are pregnant and/or have children. Glasses with cartoon characters painted on them, painted plates, lunchboxes, crayons, chalk, stickers and toys can all contain unsafe levels of lead.
    x-ray fluorescence

  2. handyman manchester

    handyman manchester
    The impact of the new law, especially in terms of children’s books, is vague, leaving local booksellers, libraries and even schools trying to interpret its meaning and figure out how to comply, and at what cost.

  3. Thomas Harvey

    Young children are at the greatest risk of health problems related to lead exposure, including serious brain and kidney damage. Children age 3 and under are especially vulnerable because their ways of playing and exploring — such as crawling and putting objects in their mouths — increase their risk of contact with lead, and of lead entering their bodies through breathing or swallowing.

    Bury Handyman

  4. Ryan Brown

    Children are more susceptible than adults to lead exposure due to increased contact with dust and dirt contaminated with lead, increased hand-to-mouth contact, and higher absorption of lead in the gastrointestinal tract.

  5. Rachel Waters

    The presence of lead in any home can be a terrible problem for homeowners. Lead can be present in the paint, dust, or even the air in a lot of older homes, mostly built before 1978 when it was outlawed as a paint material. The presence of lead can be detrimental to homes with children in it.

  6. Harold Saunders

    Lead can enter drinking water when plumbing materials that contain lead corrode, especially where the water has high acidity or low mineral content that corrodes pipes and fixtures. The most common sources of lead in drinking water are lead pipes, faucets, and fixtures.

  7. man and van Rochdale

    Safety improvement will do more good in any company that would be tested.

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