Safety Commission To Rule On Safety of Rulers In Science Kits

The Consumer Product Safety Commission has been trying decide for weeks if science kits designed to teach children are safe enough for children to use without vigorous testing. It's not just the chemicals or sharp items in the kits that they are troubled with however. They are also concerned about the dangers of paper clips, magnets, and rulers. From the article: "Science kit makers asked for a testing exemption for the paper clips and other materials. The commission declined to grant them a blanket waiver as part of the guidance the agency approved Wednesday on a 3-2 vote." To be fair, paper clips can cause a lot of damage — just look at what Clippy did to Microsoft Office.

Does this mean...

[mrsteveman1]

....that the "My First Meth Lab" is probably never going to reach store shelves?

Re:And people wonder why the US is falling behind

[Ltap]

A better question might be: "Is our children learning?"

Some rulers are dangerous

[Storebj0rn]

It's clearly irresponsible to expose kids to some rulers; Saddam Hussein, Joseph Stalin and under certain conditions George W Bush

Sloppy

[symes]

I must say that I find the concerns raised by the Consumer Product Safety Commission to be lacking. They haven't, for example, considered the considerable harms posed by the science kits manual itself. The risk of a paper cut is considerable.

Re:Buy Now!

[sureshot007]

Now comes with Science Rock !

* Warning - Science Rock is not for use with actual science.

The federal commission of me agrees

[roman_mir]

The federal commission of me agrees: science should be banned in the USA, so should be the last remnants of common sense; any display of individuality and unhealthy interest in any particular subject need to be investigated to establish the safety of such behavior as it relates to the society in total.

Everything must be made not just safe enough, but safe with a huge margin of error so that there is no chance of any accident happening ever at all. Of-course accidents are mostly responsible for a large number of scientific discoveries, so any evidence of scientific discovery must be investigated to isolate the main reason and find out where the safety procedures have failed to prevent such an occurrence to make sure it never happens again.

Have a safe day.

Re:Can't you simulate a chemistry set with softwar

[ElectricTurtle]

It's all fun and games until somebody is garroted by a peripheral cable... all the more reason to go wireless I suppose. But then you have hazardous batteries and nutjobs who think that very low power radio transmitters are going to give them cancer. You just can't win.

Re:Can't you simulate a chemistry set with softwar

[mysidia]

Just wait 'til you get to the chapter on Darwin and Natural Selection?

It's like magic...

[hoggoth]

F*cking Rulers, How Do They Work?

Re:Can't you simulate a chemistry set with softwar

[Anonymous Coward]

a strange game. The only winning move is not to play.

Re:Can't you simulate a chemistry set with softwar

[ZFox]

Did they keep misspelling colour and centre and have trouble locating the boot of a car?

Re:And people wonder why the US is falling behind

[kalirion]

They isn't. The illiteracy level of our children are appalling

Re:And people wonder why the US is falling behind

[StikyPad]

Well? Is they?