Hachette Book Group — CPSIA Regulations
At Hachette Book Group we are confident that all of the children's products we manufacture and supply currently comply, and will continue to comply, with applicable US consumer product safety laws, including the lead, phthalate and other applicable specifications set forth in the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 (CPSIA). Even prior to the passage of the CPSIA, Hachette's "books-plus" products were regularly safety tested by independent laboratories to meet US product safety standards. Those test results additionally confirm that our books-plus products comply with the recently enacted CPSIA standards applicable to books-plus products. Hachette will continue to manufacture and test its books-plus products consistent with the requirements of the CPSIA.
At this time, the CPSIA does not require plain paper and ink books to be tested or certified. Nevertheless, Hachette has begun safety testing representative samples of paper and ink children's books to confirm that the lead-in-substrate limits are well below the most stringent limits of the CPSIA. In addition, Hachette has documented confirmation from several major printers that the inks, paper, adhesives, laminates, coatings and other book components traditionally contain no lead or de minimus amounts of lead (under 100 ppm) which is well below the CPSIA lead-in-substrate limits (600 ppm as of February 10, 2009; 300 ppm as of August 14, 2009). Please note that the phthalate ban and ASTM 963-07 Standard do not apply to paper and ink books.
Hachette is currently developing a link on our homepage (.hachettebookgroup.com) for the public to access general conformity certificates for all children’s products covered by the CPSIA. These certificates will be available online within the timeframes set forth under the CPSIA.
Thank you very much. We appreciate the valuable working relationship we have always had with you.