December 21, 2009 – The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) voted to extend the stay on testing for total lead content as required by the CPSIA to February 2011.  The CPSC announced the decision to a group of industry advocates, primarily represented by Book Manufacturers Institute (BMI), Association of American Publishers (AAP), and Printing Industries of America (PIA).  The group had been encouraging the CPSC to extend the one year stay, which had been due to expire in February of 2010.

 The extended stay will allow additional time for the group of industry advocates to gain an exemption from third party testing for book components that did not already have exemption from testing.  BMI, AAP, and PIA will continue efforts to gain legislative support to exempt ordinary books from the CPSIA.

 This stay on testing does not relieve book manufacturers from meeting the requirements of the CPSIA. The current limit for total lead content is 300ppm for products designed to be used by children 12 years old or younger.