[Congressional Bills 111th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 1692 Introduced in House (IH)]

111th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 1692

To amend the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act to exempt ordinary 
                 books from the lead limit in such Act.


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                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             March 24, 2009

 Mr. Fortenberry introduced the following bill; which was referred to 
                  the Committee on Energy and Commerce

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To amend the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act to exempt ordinary 
                 books from the lead limit in such Act.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds that--
            (1) the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 
        (CPSIA) sought to protect children from the dangers associated 
        with products containing unreasonable levels of lead, by 
        imposing lead standards and testing requirements;
            (2) the Consumer Product Safety Commission has interpreted 
        the Act to apply to all children's books;
            (3) the Act was not intended to apply to ordinary books--
        those books that are published on paper or cardboard, printed 
        by conventional publishing methods, intended to be read, and 
        lacking inherent play value;
            (4) comprehensive testing by accredited laboratories of 
        finished books and their component materials has found total 
        lead content at levels considered non-detectable, or 10 ppm, 
        well below the thresholds in CPSIA;
            (5) the book manufacturing process is now standardized 
        across the United States and much of the world, does not add 
        lead to the component materials, and is specialized such that 
        the book manufacturing equipment is not generally used for 
        other types of manufacturing, avoiding the potential for cross-
        contamination;
            (6) the largest publishers in the United States do not use 
        lead-based chemicals or other materials in the manufacturing of 
        ordinary books, in accordance with standards promulgated by the 
        Coalition of Northeastern Governors;
            (7) the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have 
        determined there is minimal risk to children from lead in 
        ordinary books;
            (8) reading books is critical to child development and 
        education and schools and libraries operating under limited 
        budgets provide millions of children with free access to 
        ordinary books, and yet despite the lack of evidence that their 
        books contain harmful levels of lead, libraries and other 
        organizations have to restrict access to children's books due 
        to the burdens and uncertainties associated with CPSIA's new 
        lead levels and testing requirements.

SEC. 2. EXEMPTION FOR ORDINARY BOOKS.

    Section 101 of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (15 
U.S.C. 1278a) is amended by adding at the end the following:
    ``(h) Exclusion for Ordinary Books.--
            ``(1) In general.--The limits established under subsection 
        (a) shall not apply to ordinary books.
            ``(2) Definition of ordinary books.--As used in this 
        subsection, the term `ordinary books' means books published on 
        paper or cardboard, printed by conventional publishing methods, 
        intended to be read, and lacking inherent play value.''.
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