The Consumer Product Safety Commission has voted unanimously to approve publication in the Federal Register of a draft notice, with changes, that will announce a proposed rule to establish a mandatory safety standard for portable bed rails. It will simultaneously withdraw an October 2000 advance notice of proposed rulemaking on the topic. CPSC canceled its April 6, 2011 meeting on portable bed rails as it made its decision by ballot vote.
The Food and Drug Administration has made available its Enforcement Report for April 6, 2011.
The Food Safety and Inspection Service and the Food and Drug Administration are requesting comments and scientific data and information that would assist them in their plan to update a risk assessment on the relationship between foodborne Listeria monocytogenes in selected categories of ready-to-eat (RTE) foods and human health. Comments are due by July 6, 2011.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission has issued Federal Register notice of its meeting on April 13, 2011 to vote on a final rule that would establish a mandatory standard for toddler beds that is substantially the same as ASTM F1821 - 09, with several modifications to strengthen the standard. The final rule, which CPSC has stated is very similar to its April 2010 proposed rule, would take effect six months after publication in the Federal Register. (See ITT's Online Archives or 03/24/11 news, 11032427, for BP summary of CPSC's previous announcement of this vote.)
The Food and Drug Administration is announcing the 14th Annual Educational Conference on June 8-9, 2011 in Irvine, CA, which is intended to provide the drug, device, biologics, and dietary supplement industries with an opportunity to interact with FDA reviewers, compliance officers, and other industry experts. The main focus of this interactive conference will be product approval, compliance, and risk management in the three medical product areas.
On April 6, 2011, the Food and Drug Administration posted revised versions of the following Import Alerts on the detention without physical examination of:
The Consumer Product Safety Commission has announced a closed meeting on April 13, 2011, in which the staff will brief the Commission on various compliance matters.
During March 31, 2011 testimony before a House Appropriations subcommittee1, Consumer Product Safety Commission Chairman Tenenbaum and Commissioner Northup repeated their recent statements about CPSC’s 2012 budget request of $122 million, a slight increase from the current $118.2 million funding level.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission is scheduled to vote by April 12, 2011 on a draft notice that would revise the terms of acceptance of children’s product certifications based on third party lab testing of clothing textiles pursuant to 16 CFR part 1610, “Standard for the Flammability of Clothing Textiles,” before CPSC' s acceptance of a lab's accreditation (i.e. the limited "retrospective" testing CPSC allows before a lab's accreditation is accepted).
On April 4, 2011, the Food and Drug Administration launched a new consumer-friendly Web search for use during recalls. Consumers will now be able to search for food and other product recalls easier and quicker on the FDA’s website. To provide greater ease of use for consumers, the search results will now provide data from news releases and other recall announcements in the form of a table which organizes information from news releases on recalls since 2009 by date, product brand name, product description, reason for the recall and the recalling firm.