Consumer Product Safety Commission, Publishers Meet to Clarify New Law

Efforts to clarify the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA), which goes into effect on February 10, continued last week.

On Thursday, January 22, the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) met with professionals representing a wide spectrum of the book industry, including paper and book manufacturers, ink makers, and representatives from the Association of American Publishers (AAP), Random House, Simon & Schuster, Penguin, and Scholastic.

A week before the meeting, Cheryl Halvey, general counsel, U.S. CPSC, sent AAP a letter in which it clarified its position on what constitutes an acceptable Certificate of Conformity. The letter stated that a general conformity certification for lead content on February 10, 2009, need only be based on a "reasonable testing program. A general conformity certificate does not need to be based on a test of every title of every book printed.... A retailer or distributor of children's books can rely on general conformity certificates to sell or distribute those books.... [and] it is reasonable for a retailer or distributor to rely on a general conformity certificate until the requirements for third-party testing for the lead content of children's products go into effect in August 2009."

While the January 15 letter to AAP from CPSC may allow children's booksellers to breathe a cautious sigh of relief for now, the January 22 meeting proved that there is much for CPSC and the book industry to hammer out.

AAP's goal is to have children's paper-based books meant for reading or writing exempt from CPSIA. In opening the meeting, Halvey and Nancy Nord, the acting chairman of CPSC, explained that children's paper-based books meant for reading could be exempt under CPSIA if the commission is provided proper scientific documentation from the industry.

Nord stressed, "We need to implement [CPSIA] ... in a sensible and serious manner. We've been hearing from libraries and publishers about the issues they are having in order to meet the requirement of February 10. What's also clear is that the legislation doesn't give us a lot of latitude for issues coming up without imposing unintended and undue consequences on folks who are manufacturing perfectly safe products."

CPSC's Halvey asked the industry if it could provide scientific documentation that shows that "these products inherently don't meet or exceed the lead limit."

In response, Allan Adler, vice president for legal and government affairs for AAP, stated: "We never heard much about this legislation [when it was first introduced] ... but I understand why. Books are treated as unregulated products. Recalls involved chokable items and the issue of lead content in paper-based books that are intended to be read or written in have never been a problem."

Key to the book industry's argument to exempt paper-based books is the RR Donnelley website that shows the testing results of 150 books as well as their component parts.

Adler explained that it would be impossible to test every book. "It's impossible to consider what will happen, what this would mean for books sitting in public libraries, school libraries and classrooms, and other facilities.... These types of materials [found in books] inherently do not provide the risk of exposure even near the levels provided for safe products under CPSIA."

Linda Palladino, vice president/director of production, Random House Children's Books, told the commission that it was important to understand that, for most publishers, the "production process is the same. We use the same pool of manufacturers. Children's books have a specialized niche -- we use the same raw materials, the same papers.... And the children's book industry has a history of making sure that books are safe for children. In recent years, with the emphasis on the environment and safety, we are using green products and are constantly evaluating and using materials of the highest standards."

Others who spoke before the commission were: Michael Manzella, senior vice president, environmental, health, safety, and quality, for RR Donnelley; John P. Pecaric, senior vice president, manufacturing, RR Donnelley; John L. Festa, senior scientist, American Forest & Paper Association; and Chris Barricklow, manager, regulatory compliance, Flint Ink Group.

In mid-January, the American Booksellers Association reached out to more than 20 children's publishers in an effort to ascertain what they will be doing to comply with CPSIA. As publisher responses are received, ABA will share the information with members via Bookselling This Week. --David Grogan