Comments on: Making hair bows in west Michigan

By: William Nuesslein

William Nuesslein — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:21:41 +0000

I presume that Dr. T means medical doctor. Medical doctors generally do very well in school. The gasoline fumes you inhaled as a youngster probably were tainted with tetraethyl lead, and lead is supposed to decrease IQ.

Actually childhood heath improvement came mainly from sanitation measures (sewers) and vaccines. Taking lead out of everything appeals to Senator Klobuchar because she is so ignorant.

By: Dr. T

Dr. T — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 23:17:24 +0000

Why aren’t we dead? Given all the things that CPSIA says are hazardous, no one should have survived to adulthood for the past century. I survived no seatbelts, riding in the back of the station wagon, riding on the hydraulic lift bar on the back of the tractor, climbing in and on barns and an old silo, jumping off barn roofs, climbing tall trees, putting toys in my mouth, clothes in my mouth, buttons in my mouth, holding mercury in my hand, snowball fights, sledding as a contact sport, reading and handling old books and magazines, inhaling gasoline and turpentine fumes, building plastic models in a room with poor ventilation, chewing the end of my pen, watching lots of TV from 4′ away, and being around my younger siblings every day. Everything’s backwards. It should be that being a supporter of CPSIA is hazardous to one’s health.

By: Walter Olson

Walter Olson — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 16:20:22 +0000

Thanks for flagging that point. The Michigan article is in error; someone at the paper must have gotten confused about the distinction between mandatory testing as such (which applies only to newly made goods) and coverage of the law generally. As noted exhaustively in our earlier posts, thrift stores are very much exposed to legal penalties if they sell older goods that flunk the new standards, so while they are not obliged per se to test used goods, they proceed at their peril in not doing so.

By: panthan

panthan — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 15:58:36 +0000

From the first article linked:
The federal act also does not impact second-hand, thrift or consignment stores.
I (and, I believe, Goodwill) was under the impression that it does. Has something sensible happened? Or was I mistaken?