Friday, August 14, 2009

Does this book need lead testing? Decision Flow Charts

In my spare time (not really), I created some flow charts to help work out the decision process in determining if a book needs to be lead tested. You may think that relying on the simple pre vs post 1985 printing date is all you need, guess again. The CPSC doesn't give a blanket exemption but instead gives many qualifiers to the post-1985 exemption. Perhaps I am making this way too complex? I'll let you decide. I don't assume to understand the final lead rule - so use these with caution and at your own risk. I hope this at least illustrates the regulatory complexity that is the result of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) and the further complexity that results in exemptions.

These charts are available as PDF, openoffice, inkscape SVG formats. If you find an error, please leave a comment and I'll see if I can fix it. You can also DM tweet (melanes) me your email address if you would like a PDF copy. Click on the images for larger versions. (BTW, I couldn't make just one flow chart. It wasn't that cut and dry, thus the reason for two).


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

those are awesome! thanks.

Catherine Jaime said...

Would be funny...if wasn't so sad!