CPSC Testing/Certification Stay for Lead Content of Children's Product Set to Lift Feb 10
Consumer Product Safety Commission sources confirm that the agency’s stay of enforcement that has been in effect since February 10, 2009 on the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) testing and certification requirements for lead content of children’s products is still scheduled to lift on February 10, 2011.
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(Note that CPSIA testing and certification for the lead content of children's metal jewelry was never stayed and has been required since March 23, 2009. In addition, there are certain materials and components that CPSC has determined are either not subject to the testing and certification requirement; are not subject to the lead content limits themselves; or whose compliance with the lead content limits are temporarily stayed.1)
Testing/Certification Has Been Stayed for Lead Content Since Feb 2009
CPSC’s statute requires each manufacturer (including an importer) or private labeler of a children’s product subject to a children’s product safety rule (such as the limit on lead content) to submit sufficient samples of the product, or samples that are identical in all material respects to the product, to a CPSC-accredited third-party lab to be tested for compliance with that children’s product safety rule.
Based on this testing, CPSC requires domestic manufacturers (in the case of domestic products) or importers (in the case of imports)2 to issue a certificate which certifies that the children’s product complies with this rule.
However, CPSC has stayed enforcement of these testing and certification requirements for lead content since February 2009. (See ITT’s Online Archives or 02/02/09 news, 09020205, for BP summary of CPSC’s original stay of enforcement.)
CPSC Announced Stay Would Remain in Place for Lead Content Until Feb 2011
In December 2009, CPSC announced that it would lift its testing and certification stay of enforcement in stages. For some products and safety rules, the stay was lifted on February 10, 2010; for others, there were different dates. For lead content of children’s products, the agency said the testing/certification stay would remain in place until February 10, 2011. (See ITT’s Online Archives or 12/29/09 news, 09122920, for BP summary of CPSC’s notice lifting the stay in stages.)
CPSC stated that this delay was meant to allow component testing to form the basis for certifications for lead content and permit the staff to complete a rulemaking on the definition of the term “children’s product.” (See ITT’s Online Archives or 05/21/10 and 10/14/10 news, 10052134 and 10101412, for BP summaries of the proposed rule on component testing and the final rule on the definition of children’s products.)
Stay Set to Lift, 3rd-Party Testing/Certification Will Be Needed for Lead Content After Feb 10
According to CPSC sources, the testing and certification stay is scheduled to be lifted as planned on February 10, 2011. This means that children’s products manufactured after this date will have to be tested by a CPSC accredited third-party lab and based on that testing, certified as complying with the lead content limits.
Underlying Lead Content Limits Never Stayed
CPSC has always cautioned that the testing and certification stay did not affect underlying product compliance. Therefore, children’ products, unless exempt or otherwise not subject to the limits, have had to comply with the actual lead content limits since they took effect in 2009. This limit is currently set at 300 parts per million (ppm).3
1CPSC has determined that a number of materials (paper, textiles, ink, etc.) do not exceed the lead content limits and therefore do not require any CPSIA testing and certification for lead content. CPSC has also issued: (i) a final rule excluding certain components of children's electronic devices from compliance with the lead content limits; (ii) a final rule defining inaccessible parts as these are exempt from complying with the lead content limits by statute; and (iii) two-year stays of enforcement for certain components of children's (youth) ATVs and bicycles, giving them until May 1, 2011 and July 1, 2011, respectively, to comply with the lead content limits.
2CPSC has interpreted the certification requirement as affecting domestic manufacturers (in the case of domestic products) and importers (in the case of imported products). (See ITT’s Online Archives or 11/18/08 news, 08111805, for BP summary of a November 2008 CPSC final rule interpreting this requirement.)
3The CPSIA imposed progressive limits on lead content in consumer products designed or intended primarily for children 12 and under such that: (i) on February 10, 2009, children's products with more than 600 ppm of total lead content by weight in any accessible part became banned hazardous substances; (ii) on August 14, 2009, the allowable lead content limit in such products decreased to 300 ppm; and (iii) on August 14, 2011, the limit will decrease to 100 ppm, unless CPSC determines that it is not technologically feasible for a product or product category. (See ITT’s Online Archives or 10/19/10 news, 10101914, for BP summary on the comments CPSC received regarding the technological feasibility of the 100 ppm lead content limit.)