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Lead Prompts Libraries to Remove Some Children's Books |
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By Kelsey Teeger
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March 20, 2009 |
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A federal law banning lead and other toxic substances in products for children 12 and under has raised new concerns. Some libraries have pulled children's books that were printed before 1986 because lead was used in printer's ink before then.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the chances of those books containing lead harmful to children is low. At least two libraries didn't want to take any chances and removed the books from their shelves.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission interprets the new federal law to include books but hasn't weighed in on whether older books could cause harm to children. A spokesperson for the CPSC first said that more testing needs to be done to determine whether the books are safe and, until then, that librarians at the more than 116,000 public and school libraries needed to take precautions to ensure children were not further exposed to the older books. Then a clarification was made to that statement that said librarians should not be encouraged to remove the books because the lead-based ink should not be considered harmful. However, the CPSC is currently investigating the ink older books contain and adds that the real concern would be if a child were to put one of these books containing lead-based ink into his mouth. |