TitleTales

CPSIA Amendment Excluding Ordinary Children's Books Signed into Law

On Friday, August 12, 2011 President Obama signed into law an amendment to the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSiA) of 2008 that excludes “ordinary” children’s books from the law’s third-party testing and certification provisions, and promises to make testing less burdensome for novelty and book-plus publishers. The legislation gives book publishers some relief with respect to the third-party testing requirements in the law.

The amendment, H.R. 2715, was introduced and approved almost unanimously in both the House and Senate on August 1. The publishing and printing industries had been lobbying for changes to CPSIA since the law went into effect more than two years ago, arguing that books have never been regulated and have never posed a safety hazard to children due to lead.

The new law also makes CPSIA’s requirements prospective rather than retrospective, meaning only products manufactured since the original law went into effect are included, thus eliminating most libraries’ concerns about older books.

Publishers of novelty and book-plus titles for children 12 and under that contain components not made of paper or board, or are printed on materials other than paper or board, still need to comply with the third-party testing and certification provisions of the Act. They are awaiting the Consumer Products Safety Commission’s publication of rules regarding specific testing and certification procedures. A current stay of enforcement on testing and certification expires at the end of the year.

For more information see Publisher’s Weekly coverage of key events on this issue: CPSIA Timeline by Publisher’s Weekly

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