Quin-essential Cases: Unleaded economy could fuel huge job losses

Folks often hear the exhortation to “get the lead out” when moving too slowly. But Congress’s over-hasty insistence on getting the lead out is about to cause massive economic problems in an already weak economy.

The Manhattan Institute’s Walter Olson wrote Jan. 16 in Forbes that a new law, limiting lead content in consumer products, probably will be

“a calamity for businesses and an epic failure of regulation, threatening to wipe out tens of thousands of small makers of children's items from coast to coast, and taking a particular toll on the handcrafted and creative, the small-production-run and sideline at-home business, not to mention struggling retailers.”

As usual, only the plaintiffs’ attorneys are rubbing their hands in glee.

Last August, Congress passed the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act, which mandates that all products for children ages 12 and under be tested for lead and phthalates (a chemical in many plastics), and that no such products be sold with lead contents higher than 600 parts per million.

The sales ban applies retroactively, too: Even if the items in question were made 100 years ago, The Consumer Products Safety Commission (CPSC) has advised that a second-hand store could be subject to lawsuits or even “criminal penalties” for selling them... [snip]

If Congress and President Obama have any decency, they will pass an emergency bill this very week to delay all implementation of the act for a full year, until they themselves can re-do the original legislation to make it more clear, and more sensible.

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