I 

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. 

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. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. FINDINGS. 

4 Congress finds that— 

5 (1) the Consumer Product Safety Improvement 

6 Act of 2008 (CPSIA) sought to protect children 

7 from the dangers associated with products con8 taining unreasonable levels of lead, by imposing lead 

9 standards and testing requirements; 


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1 (2) the Consumer Product Safety Commission 

2 has interpreted the Act to apply to all children’s 

3 books; 

4 (3) the Act was not intended to apply to ordi5 nary books—those books that are published on 

6 paper or cardboard, printed by conventional pub7 lishing methods, intended to be read, and lacking in8 herent play value; 

9 (4) comprehensive testing by accredited labora10 tories of finished books and their component mate11 rials has found total lead content at levels consid12 ered non-detectable, or 10 ppm, well below the 

13 thresholds in CPSIA; 

14 (5) the book manufacturing process is now 

15 standardized across the United States and much of 

16 the world, does not add lead to the component mate17 rials, and is specialized such that the book manufac18 turing equipment is not generally used for other 

19 types of manufacturing, avoiding the potential for 

20 cross-contamination; 

21 (6) the largest publishers in the United States 

22 do not use lead-based chemicals or other materials 

23 in the manufacturing of ordinary books, in accord24 ance with standards promulgated by the Coalition of 

25 Northeastern Governors; 


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1 (7) the Centers for Disease Control and Preven2 tion have determined there is minimal risk to chil3 dren from lead in ordinary books; 

4 (8) reading books is critical to child develop5 ment and education and schools and libraries oper6 ating under limited budgets provide millions of chil7 dren with free access to ordinary books, and yet de8 spite the lack of evidence that their books contain 

9 harmful levels of lead, libraries and other organiza10 tions have to restrict access to children’s books due 

11 to the burdens and uncertainties associated with 

12 CPSIA’s new lead levels and testing requirements. 

13 SEC. 2. EXEMPTION FOR ORDINARY BOOKS. 

14 Section 101 of the Consumer Product Safety Im15 provement Act (15 U.S.C. 1278a) is amended by adding 

16 at the end the following: 

17 ‘‘(h) EXCLUSION FOR ORDINARY BOOKS.— 

18 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The limits established 

19 under subsection (a) shall not apply to ordinary 

20 books. 

21 ‘‘(2) DEFINITION OF ORDINARY BOOKS.—As 

22 used in this subsection, the term ‘ordinary books’ 

23 means books published on paper or cardboard, printVerDate Nov 24 2008 03:57 Mar 25, 2009 Jkt 079200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1692.IH H1692

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1 ed by conventional publishing methods, intended to 

2 be read, and lacking inherent play value.’’. 

Æ 


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