Late last week, the two current members of the Consumer Products Safety Commission denied a request from children’s products industries to grant a stay of enforcement on the tracking label provision of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act, with acting head Nancy Nord voting for the stay and Thomas Moore against. Therefore, the tracking label provisions under section 103 of the CPSIA will go into effect this August as scheduled. Manufacturers had asked for the stay because the CPSC has not yet issued guidance on how publishers and other companies can comply with the provision, making it difficult for product marketers to meet the deadline.

The tracking label provision affects all children’s books, including the post-1985 ink-on-paper and ink-on-board formats that fall under the previous stay of enforcement addressing the Act’s lead-content requirements. We'll provide more information on the CPSIA-mandated tracking labels as more details emerge.