HeyBub wrote:

Consider books.

The new regulations say that a book published before 1986 (or almost
anything else) must be tested for lead content before it can be accessed by
children. Inasmuch as lead testing costs upwards of $100, a HUGE swath of
children's books must be removed from libraries and cannot be resold.

They don't say that at all. Only newly manufactured goods must be
certified. Old goods shouldn't be sold for use by children if there is
reason to believe they exceed the limits, but there is no penalty. Lead
was phased out of ink about 1980, so Congress decided books printed
before 1985 were presumed dangerous.

It doesn't affect lending, but librarians are afraid they might be
affected someday. Nancy Davenport, interim director of library services
at the District of Columbia Public Library, claimed that if the law were
changed to prohibit lending, 110,000 of the system's 650,000 children's
books would have to be discarded.

I think she's stretching it. I used to work in the children's
department of a municipal library that was 100 years old. There were
lots of books with heavy-duty bindings and lots of mended books, but if
you wanted anything over ten years old, you had to go around the corner
to the young adults section. Kids are rough on library books.

If someday the law prohibits libraries from lending children's books
printed before 1985, they will be more than 25 years old.