POCATELLO - A law set to take effect in February limiting the amount of lead contained within children's products has librarians concerned it could require prohibitively expensive testing or discarding of children's books and other educational materials.

Provisions in the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act will take effect on Feb. 10. Products intended for primarily for use by children 12 and under will be subject to lead limits of 600 parts per million for paint and surface coating. The limit will decrease to 300 PPM on Aug. 14.

"I do understand the commission has been flooded with phone calls from librarians asking what's going on and how can we face the two apparent choices - either remove all our children's books or don't let kids come into our libraries," said State Librarian Ann Joslin. "Needless to say, neither one of those is very reasonable."

Joslin said testing was performed on several books by the American Library Association to see if a problem existed with lead levels.

"The lead levels came out to be way, way below the (prohibited) levels," she said. "The other thing they mentioned was the tests are expensive and so most libraries wouldn't be able to afford it."

The other question would be which portions of their collections would need to be tested.

"The whole thing just does not seem very workable," she said.

Joslin noted that books may not be the only concern.

"If you go into a an elementary school library or the children's section of a public library, they have more than books there. There are stuffed animals, there are posters, there are sometimes toys," she said. "Presumably this legislation would cover those items as well."

Marshall Public Library Director Mike Doellman noted his children's department has both books and toys. He doesn't believe either pose a threat.

"I would venture to guess our books here are lead free," Doellman said.

"We have a number of toys down there and the children love them. I would put the chance of you finding (lead) approaching zero."

Doellman agrees with the necessity of removing lead from children's products, but believes the scope of the Act overreaches when it applies to books.

"(I think) that the CPSC didn't realize what the rule was going to do," he said. "I doubt that they're going to say that we have to close every children's department in the United States."

The ALA has requested that libraries be exempt from the provisions of the Act. The Consumer Product Safety Commission has responded by placing a hold on the children's books portion of the requirement pending further study.

"It seems that no one know what's going to happen next," she said.

In a letter sent Monday to the CPSC, the ALA noted that the Act specifically identifies manufacturers, importers and retailers. The ALA argued that libraries neither produce nor distribute books in commerce as specified in the Act, and should therefore be exempt.

The letter also asks the commission to make a regulatory determination that books do not contain lead levels in excess of the new standards, citing documentation which indicates levels to be significantly below even the 100 PPM level established by the CPSC for compliance in three years.

Doellman is optimistic the issue will be ironed out satisfactorily.

"For the time being, all I'm going to do is sit loose," he said.