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. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives 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 con-
taining unreasonable levels of lead, by imposing lead 
standards and testing requirements; 
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(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 ordi-
nary books—those books that are published on 
paper or cardboard, printed by conventional pub-
lishing methods, intended to be read, and lacking in-
herent play value; 
(4) comprehensive testing by accredited labora-
tories of finished books and their component mate-
rials has found total lead content at levels consid-
ered 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 mate-
rials, and is specialized such that the book manufac-
turing 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 accord-
ance with standards promulgated by the Coalition of 
Northeastern Governors; 
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(7) the Centers for Disease Control and Preven-
tion have determined there is minimal risk to chil-
dren from lead in ordinary books; 
(8) reading books is critical to child develop-
ment and education and schools and libraries oper-
ating under limited budgets provide millions of chil-
dren with free access to ordinary books, and yet de-
spite the lack of evidence that their books contain 
harmful levels of lead, libraries and other organiza-
tions 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 Im-
provement 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, print-
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ed by conventional publishing methods, intended to 
be read, and lacking inherent play value.’’. 
Æ 
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