NEWS from CPSC

CPSC Grants One Year Stay of Testing and Certification Requirements for Certain Products

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission voted unanimously (2-0) to issue a one year stay of enforcement for certain testing and certification requirements for manufacturers and importers of regulated products, including products intended for children 12 years old and younger. These requirements are part of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA), which added certification and testing requirements for all products subject to CPSC standards or bans.

Significant to makers of children’s products, the vote by the Commission provides limited relief from the testing and certification requirements which go into effect on February 10, 2009 for new total lead content limits (600 ppm), phthalates limits for certain products (1000 ppm), and mandatory toy standards, among other things. Manufacturers and importers – large and small – of children’s products will not need to test or certify to these new requirements, but will need to meet the lead and phthalates limits, mandatory toy standards and other requirements.

The decision by the Commission gives the staff more time to finalize four proposed rules which could relieve certain materials and products from lead testing and to issue more guidance on when testing is required and how it is to be conducted.

The stay will remain in effect until February 10, 2010, at which time a Commission vote will be taken to terminate the stay.

The stay does not apply to:

• Four requirements for third-party testing and certification of certain children’s products subject to:
  • The ban on lead in paint and other surface coatings effective for products made after December 21, 2008;
  • The standards for full-size and non full-size cribs and pacifiers effective for products made after January 20, 2009;
  • The ban on small parts effective for products made after February 15, 2009; and
  • The limits on lead content of metal components of children’s jewelry effective for products made after March 23, 2009.
• Certification requirements applicable to ATV’s manufactured after April 13, 2009.
• Pre-CPSIA testing and certification requirements, including for: automatic residential garage door openers, bike helmets, candles with metal core wicks, lawnmowers, lighters, mattresses, and swimming pool slides; and
• Pool drain cover requirements of the Virginia Graeme Baker Pool & Spa Safety Act.

The stay of enforcement provides some temporary, limited relief to the crafters, children’s garment manufacturers and toy makers who had been subject to the testing and certification required under the CPSIA. These businesses will not need to issue certificates based on testing of their products until additional decisions are issued by the Commission. However, all businesses, including, but not limited to, handmade toy and apparel makers, crafters and home-based small businesses, must still be sure that their products conform to all safety standards and similar requirements, including the lead and phthalates provisions of the CPSIA.

Handmade garment makers are cautioned to know whether the zippers, buttons and other fasteners they are using contain lead. Likewise, handmade toy manufacturers need to know whether their products, if using plastic or soft flexible vinyl, contain phthalates.

The stay of enforcement on testing and certification does not address thrift and second hand stores and small retailers because they are not required to test and certify products under the CPSIA. The products they sell, including those in inventory on February 10, 2009, must not contain more than 600 ppm lead in any accessible part. The Commission is aware that it is difficult to know whether a product meets the lead standard without testing and has issued guidance for these companies that can be found on our web site.

The Commission trusts that State Attorneys General will respect the Commission’s judgment that it is necessary to stay certain testing and certification requirements and will focus their own enforcement efforts on other provisions of the law, e.g. the sale of recalled products.

Please visit the CPSC Web site at www.cpsc.gov/about/cpsia/cpsia.html for more information on all of the efforts being made to successfully implement the CPSIA.

Statements on this vote by Acting Chairman Nancy Nord and Commissioner Thomas H. Moore are in portable document format (PDF).

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Oh, thank goodness she was an angel in the Christmas Pageant this year.

Did you not know this was important? Then, let me repost this story from a Christmas past, and you’ll understand:

Nothing says “Merry Christmas” like a toddler pitching a fit in the middle of the nativity scene.

It happened on Christmas Eve when the Fairly Odd Family all went to our kind, affirming, open-minded Unitarian Universalist Church for their ‘family-friendly’ 4pm service. Belly and Jilly were in the ‘Cherub Choir’ which means they got up twice to sing—a rousing version of Jingle Bells and a somewhat confused version of the Twelve Days of Christmas (as one dad said, “They are great until Day Eight; after that, it all falls apart”).

After the Choir finished, the Nativity Play began. Other than the parts of Mary & Joseph, all of the other parts in the play are filled as the play is read. For instance, when the story got to the part about the star in the sky, the minister would ask for someone to volunteer to be a star. That person would run to the back of the church, grab their star ‘prop’ and saunter down the aisle to the ‘manger’ at the front of the church.

Jilly and D acted quickly, running to the back early in the play to become a donkey and a sheep, respectively (I even teared up to see little D toddling down the aisle with his ‘sheep’ poster held before his little body). Belly, being the oldest and having done this before, waited and waited until she heard these words: “We need five angels”.

With that, she and four other girls tore to the back of the church and were dressed in the mother load of props: a white sheet, fairy wings and an angel’s halo. They then floated, er, walked, to the front of the church and were then ushered to stand up in the pulpit high above our heads.

By then, I had crawled on my hands and knees to where Jilly and D were sitting, to make sure they remained quiet and to keep them from knocking over the large candle displays around them. I found Jilly in a major snit.

“I want to be an angel!”

“Yes, dear, but look! You are an adorable donkey!”

“I hate him!” (bonks mommy in head with donkey placard) “I want to be an angel!”

“Don’t bonk mommy. You can be an angel next year. Now shhhhh, we need to listen to the minister.”

“WAIL! SOB! ALL THE NOISES THAT PARENTS DREAD TO HEAR IN QUIET PLACES WHERE THERE ARE LOTS OF OTHER PEOPLE WATCHING YOU AND YOUR WAILING CHILD!”

Her cries were pitiful. She was just crushed that she was not an angel like her sister. She was just. . .a donkey.

I did my best to comfort her and, once we were home, she immediately changed into a fairy costume which seemed to cheer her up a bit.

Fairly Odd Father summed up the entire fiasco the best, though, on Christmas Day when we were telling the story to the rest of our family. I had just mentioned that the Director of Religious Education had come over to me during Jilly’s meltdown to tell me not to worry; every year a child or two lost it during the Nativity Play.

“Yeah”, interrupted Fairly Odd Father, “there is always some jackass that thinks they’re an angel”.

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Our reasons for having three children are as follows:

* we wanted a larger family, but since I had my first at 33, we knew we were a bit limited by the ticking of time;

* I was 37 when I had my son (#3) and I didn’t want to be pregnant or nursing after 40 (no good reason; I wanted to go away drinking with my girl friends);

* my body was done, done, done after #3’s birth. Also, mentally, a fourth would have sent my high-strung, Type A personality over the edge.

So, once we knew that our little guy was healthy, Fairly Odd Father made sure that there would be no more bambinos. He’s a good guy to have taken care of that.

Four years later, I can say that this was the right choice for us. I know a few people who have had babies lately and, while I love, love, love being around them, I don’t wish I had a baby of my own right now. For one, I’m finally getting a decent night’s sleep and, also, (drum roll) we have ended the Era of the Diaper.

Plus, I’m ready for a dog. And probably another kitten (sorry, Cally—my 17 year old deaf cat—just thinking ahead a bit). Oh, and then there is my slight obsession with chickens.

So, are you done or not? Or not sure? Do you think you’ll ever be sure? (and, I realize that this choice isn’t always in your hands. If we had wanted a fourth, I don’t think I could physically done it, which bums me out a bit.)

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