Comments on: CPSIA & dirtbikes: temporary stay, no permanent relief

By: CPSIA chronicles, May 15

CPSIA chronicles, May 15 — Fri, 15 May 2009 20:43:37 +0000

[…] bicycles have now joined youth motorbikes and ATVs in the twilight status of not-quite-legal temporary toleration. That’s the impact of a […]

By: Greg

Greg — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 19:50:15 +0000

I agree with that quotation from Covenant Zone, which just further strengthens my conviction that today’s political climate, in which everyone is shouting that capitalism has failed and that henceforth Congress and the President must be the ones to run the economy, is utterly insane.

By: Richard Nieporent

Richard Nieporent — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 17:40:12 +0000

William, I don’t disagree with you. I was simply trying to point out that if Congress really believed that lead was harmful, they should have done something about it a long time ago. They only passed the CPSIA because of all of the negative publicity. After all they didn’t want the public to think that they were not concerned about the poor children!

As a matter of fact, I grew up in the bad old days before lead in paint was banned and lead was still being used as an additive in gasoline and somehow I not only managed to survive, but after losing all those IQ points I was still able to get a Ph.D. in physics. It is too bad they didn’t ban lead in paint earlier. I could have won the Noble Prize in Physics. 🙂

To me, the propensity to chew on windowsills might be related to IQ, so the lower IQ cases more lead in teeth.

Apropos to you comment, the apartment building in which I grew up in the Bronx did not have window guards to prevent children from falling out. Years later when the neighborhood demographics changed from Jewish to Hispanic, suddenly there was a need to prevent children from falling out of windows and the window guards were added to all of the apartments.

By: April E. Coggins

April E. Coggins — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 16:36:09 +0000

I am a little bit chagrined that you have included the Thor logo in your post. As a motorcycle dealer that carries the Thor brand and currently has all childrens products made by Thor locked up in storage, I have found Thor and the company that owns and distributes their product as particularly unhelpful and almost disinterested in this ordeal. They have given their dealers zero support and guidance.

By: William Nuesslein

William Nuesslein — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 16:11:06 +0000

Mr. Nieporent,

Lead in gasoline was phased out starting in 1970 and lead was banned in paints for new housing in 1978. The several sites I looked at in finding the dates, there was invariably reference to the hazard of lead and its effect on IQ. The exposure to lead was greatly reduced it was removed from gasoline and paint a generation ago. Are children doing better in school? The effect of lead was based on a paper correlating lead in teeth to lower IQ. To me, the propensity to chew on windowsills might be related to IQ, so the lower IQ cases more lead in teeth.

The Chinese toy hysteria was based on some lead above some limit in two cans of paint, whose contents were spread over a half million toys. Paint binds tightly to plastic, so the actual ingestion of any paint is negligibly small. And the lead from all the paint on any toy is minuscule in the first place. Our media played the lead scare the same way they played the threat from Saddam Hussein. Actually much worse.

And worse of all, the excessive lead regulations precludes the painting of the Pulaski Skyway!

By: Richard Nieporent

Richard Nieporent — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 02:56:03 +0000

This is what happens when we ignore science in decision-making. If lead were as dangerous as the CPSIA law makes it out to be, then why wasn’t lead banned twenty years ago? The negative health effects of high levels of lead were known back then. What we have is an overreaction by Congress to the well-publicized instances where a high lead content was found in a number of Chinese products for children. Rather than address the actual problem, Congress in its infinite wisdom decided to set unrealistic limits to the amount of lead that would be allowed any product that could be used by children. And to compound their idiocy they used an age limit of12 years. While a two year old may put objects in his mouth, who ever head of a 12 year old child doing it?

By: Wacky Hermit

Wacky Hermit — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 02:14:47 +0000

I wonder what’s going to happen when a year has passed and still nobody’s invented the magical lead-free motorbike, or the XRF goggles for thrift store owners to see which clothes have lead in their buttons without testing them. Are we going to have a permanently temporary stay renewed every year while we wait for someone to discover the unicorn-fart-powered battery that will make lead-acid batteries obsolete?

By: cmmjaime

cmmjaime — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 02:07:44 +0000

But again, the sad part of Nord’s statement is: “I hope that the state attorneys general will follow our lead in this matter.” Considering the actions of some AGs already, the fact that they don’t have to follow the CPSC’s lead is disturbing to say the least.