The Consumer Product Safety Commission has issued a Notice of Stay of Enforcement of the lead provisions of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) as it applies to children’s bicycles.

 

CPSC Commissioner Nancy Nord wrote in a statement, “The Notice of Stay of Enforcement…with respect to children’s bicycles is our latest effort to bring common sense to a law having unintended and adverse consequences on both consumers and product sellers. Although there is no evidence that riding bicycles presents a credible risk of lead poisoning, the inflexible nature of the CPSIA jeopardizes children’s access to new and used bicycles.”


“…Because lead adds to the strength of the metal used and has other useful attributes, enforcement of the law could adversely impact the safety of children’s bicycles, leading to more deaths and injuries,” Nord continued.


While the Stay of Enforcement will allow children’s bicycles to continue to be sold over the next two years, it contemplates that manufacturers develop plans to reengineer their products to remove the lead from the metal used in children’s bicycles.