Need for Lead Testing to Close Children’s Library

The morons who passed this bill should be discovered and voted out of office. It’s idiotic.

Libraries may consider banning children instead of books in response to the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act’s required lead testing, an option Garrett County librarian Cathy Ashby doesn’t want to consider.

“That would be one of the ways to comply with the law, but I have a feeling that there will be a lot of civil disobedience,” Ashby said of her concern that the new law may prevent children from accessing educational materials at Ruth Enlow Library in Oakland where she is the director.

The Consumer Product Safety Act was passed by Congress Aug. 14 in reaction to findings that some toys imported from China contained dangerous levels of lead. President Bush signed the legislation, which includes stricter limits on lead levels in children’s products.

The American Library Association said it fears the law has unintended consequences, and libraries may face the choice of closing their children’s sections, banning children under the age of 12 or completing expensive lead testing for every book.