Don't throw out your library: lead scare in children's books

March 24, 11:20 AMSt. Louis Motherhood ExaminerDenise Bertacchi

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Toxic books?

The Consumer Product Safety Commission would have your throw out your library of classic children's books - if the books were printed before 1986. But are they going overboard?

A federal law passed last summer that went into effective Feb. 10 bans lead beyond minute levels in most products intended for children 12 or younger. It was passed after a string of toy recalls, mostly from China. The CPSC is interpreting the law to include books.

The fear is that books printed before 1986 may contain lead, which is toxic to young children if consumed. Printing ink containing lead was banned in '70s, but to be safe, the CPSC says any book printed before 1986 is suspect.

But according to a story ran in the Chicago Tribune:

Jay Dempsey, a health communications specialist at the CDC, said lead-based ink in children's books poses little danger.

"If that child were to actually start mouthing the book—as some children put everything in their mouths—that's where the concern would be," Dempsey said. "But on a scale of one to 10, this is like a 0.5 level of concern."

Emily Sheketoff, from the American Library Association, said "We're talking about tens of millions of copies of children's books that are perfectly safe. I wish a reasonable, rational person would just say, `This is stupid. What are we doing?'"

 I called the St. Louis County Library headquarters and asked if they were concerned about children's books older than 1986. The answer: they're not worried, because they don't have any books that old. When the library converted to a new RFID tagging system (using radio ID tags) they went through the library's entire collection re-tagging books. Any book that was too worn or out of date was recycled.

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