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Tougher Safety Requirements For Children's Products Now In Effect

Lead limits, product tracking among areas affected by new regulations

By James Limbach
ConsumerAffairs.com

Augusat 18, 2009

To that end, the Consumer Product Safety Commission is launching a program that it says will educate domestic and overseas manufacturers, importers, and distributors of children's products and other consumer goods about what it calls "these important new safety requirements."

CPSC Chairman Inez Tenenbaum is promising that the CPSIA's new requirements "will be "enforced vigorously and fairly." She adds that by ensuring that toys and other children's products meet strict lead limits and can be tracked in the event of a recall, "children will be better protected in their homes."

The new law drops the limit for lead in children's products from 600 parts per million (ppm) to 300 ppm. It is now against the law to manufacture, import, sell, or offer for sale, a children's product that has more than 300 ppm of lead in any part (except electronics) that is accessible to children.

In addition, the limit for lead in paint and similar surface-coating materials for consumer use drops from 600 ppm to 90 ppm.

CPSC spokesman Scott Wolfson tells ConsumerAffairs.com this means the "lead limits in this country have dropped to some of the strictest levels in the world." The lead paint limits also apply to toys and other articles intended for children as well as certain furniture products. Products subject to these limits cannot be sold, offered for sale, imported or manufactured after August 14 unless they meet the new lower lead limits.

It's going to be more expensive for those who violate the limits as civil penalties rise to a maximum of $100,000 per violation and up to a maximum of $15 million for a related series of violations. Previously, civil penalties were a maximum of $8,000 per violation and up to a maximum of $1.825 million for a related series of violations.

Wolfson says these increased penalties "will send a message across industries to not violate the recording requirements, to not violate the lead standards." He notes that in the past, penalties were viewed as "the cost of doing business for one day." He says the new penalties have teeth.

Manufacturers are now required to put permanent distinguishing marks (tracking label) on any consumer product primarily intended for children 12 and younger made on or after August 14, 2009.

This, Wolfson says, will pay dividends to consumers, as it will "help them match up a recall announcement with a product they may have in their home." The permanent distinguishing marks must appear on the product itself and its packaging to the extent practicable.

Carter Keithley, president of the Toy Industry Association, Inc.,(TIA) told ConsumerAffairs.com that while the new labeling requirement is complex and that further guidance and clarity from the CPSC would be helpful, "it should not entail substantial additional cost for those makers already using tracking systems. There will be a cost for manufacturers who have to impose this process from scratch."

Advertising for certain toys and games intended for use by children from three to six years old must have warnings about potential choking hazards to kids under three years of age. The requirement to include warnings in Internet advertisements took effect on December 12, 2008. All catalogues and other printed materials distributed on or after August 9, 2009, regardless of when they were printed, must include the appropriate warnings.

Rachel Weintraub of the Consumer Federation of America tells ConsumerAffairs.com that this is something the organization has advocated for years. She says this will help clear up the "disparity between buying a product in the store, where you can actually see the product and buying a product online or in a catalogue." She adds that now, "no matter how you buy the product, you'll have the information to be an informed consumer."

TIA's Keithley notes that many companies in the toy industry began planning for all the changes well in advance of the implementation deadlines. But he says, "because so many of the requirements required further explanation and implementation guidance from the CPSC, many businesses in the toy industry -- especially small- and mid-size companies -- faced significant hardship to act quickly enough to conform to the new requirements."

Separately, the CPSC has announced that TGH International Trading Inc., of Los Angeles, Calif., has agreed to pay a $31,500 civil penalty to settle allegations that it knowingly imported and sold toys that did not meet the requirements of the Federal Hazardous Substances Act.

TGH imported more than 11,000 toys into the United States between March 2005 and June 2006. These toys contained small parts that presented choking and aspiration hazards to young children.

CPSC says it is not aware of any incidents or injuries involving toys that were distributed into commerce.

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