read this! yeah, you!
see? I'm linking this. just as I was told to.
there's a stupid law on the books, supposed to be in effect already, but got delayed I guess because of all the complaints about it. you know, how it'll put thousands of businesses out of business, empty all the children's contents from libraries and thrift stores (and into landfills) across the country, etc. anyway. the NYT finally printed anything about it, and is siding with the law. or something.
anyway, the gist of the law is unless you pay lots and lots of money to government-sponsored lead-testing facilities, we don't know your products are safe and are therefore considered hazardous. and illegal to have available to the general public. this includes anything made before the law came about, and anything that is already lead tested by the manufacturers. but, you know, not by the very expensive government-sponsored lead testing facilities. like, one company spent $3000 on lead-testing equipment a few years ago to ensure the safety of their products. this doesn't count anymore. not legal! they estimated that they'd have to spend about $105,000 to do the same testing they already do. but they can't afford to. so they have to close down and stop selling their products that they already know are safe.
anyway, here's the editorial that someone wrote about the NYT article. commonreader told everyone we have to link it, and here I am, linking it.
http://overlawyered.com/2009/02/new-york-times-on-cpsia-needless-fears-that-the-law-could-injure-smaller-enterprises/
there's a stupid law on the books, supposed to be in effect already, but got delayed I guess because of all the complaints about it. you know, how it'll put thousands of businesses out of business, empty all the children's contents from libraries and thrift stores (and into landfills) across the country, etc. anyway. the NYT finally printed anything about it, and is siding with the law. or something.
anyway, the gist of the law is unless you pay lots and lots of money to government-sponsored lead-testing facilities, we don't know your products are safe and are therefore considered hazardous. and illegal to have available to the general public. this includes anything made before the law came about, and anything that is already lead tested by the manufacturers. but, you know, not by the very expensive government-sponsored lead testing facilities. like, one company spent $3000 on lead-testing equipment a few years ago to ensure the safety of their products. this doesn't count anymore. not legal! they estimated that they'd have to spend about $105,000 to do the same testing they already do. but they can't afford to. so they have to close down and stop selling their products that they already know are safe.
anyway, here's the editorial that someone wrote about the NYT article. commonreader told everyone we have to link it, and here I am, linking it.
http://overlawyered.com/2009/02/new-york-times-on-cpsia-needless-fears-that-the-law-could-injure-smaller-enterprises/