New Lead Ban Legislation Drastically Affects Motorcycle Industry
bayodome Wednesday, February 11th, 2009 6,658 views
Rumors and speculation have been flying around for a few days now on a law that could affect small motorcycles considerably. As of yesterday, those rumors were confirmed in the form of a new policy that falls under the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA). The policy is a restriction on lead found in children’s toys and products.
According to the policy, put together by the Consumer Product Safety Commision (CPSC), any product intended for children with lead at more than 600ppm is hereby banned from retail. The intention is to minimize the possibility of children ingesting trace amounts of lead that can be found in small products such as toy cars, as children have the tendency to put things in their mouths. Although the target was small products, the blanket clause states that any product, large or small, intended for children is now banned. Minibikes have traditionally been marketed towards children 12 and under, so they unfortunately fall into the larger category, despite not being toys. All motorcycles have certain amounts of lead that can be found in everything from the aluminum in various parts, to the engine cases and wiring.
What does this mean? According to a Honda spokesperson, they are advising all of their dealers to no longer sell any inventoried CRF50s, CRF70s, and CRF80s. As this point one can assume the other manufacturers are taking similar actions. Bear in mind, this is not a permanent solution and is essentially precautionary at the moment, but it could certainly have a long standing effect on the motorcycle industry as a whole. After all, many dealerships greatly depend on minibike sales in good times and bad. As the details of this ban filter in we will do our best to keep the motocross community informed.
In the meantime, to read about the CPSC policy enacted on February 10th, click here.
There is also a waiver fighting to keep motorycles from falling under this policy which can be found at http://www.tomself.com/
http://motocross.transworld.net/2009/02/11/new-lead-ban-legislation-drastically-affects-motorcycle-industry/
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2009-03-18-motorcycle-kids_N.htm?csp=34
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