The AHFA announced that the Consumer Product Safety Commission will not delay implementation of a new labeling requirement for products intended for children 12 years of age and younger.
The Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) was signed into law last August. A driving force behind the bill was a series of recalls of children’s toys and jewelry containing lead.
While debating the regulation (at that time known as H.R. 4040) last year, Congress discussed the difficulty of identifying foreign factories involved with defective products quickly enough for the CPSC to halt production and recall the products from the stream of commerce.
In response, Section 103(a) of the CPSIA establishes a new requirement for labeling consumer products intended primarily for children 12 and younger. For the home furnishings industry, this includes cribs, bunk beds and youth bedroom collections.
The law requires that one year after enactment of the CPSIA – which will be August 14, 2009 – children’s products must be permanently marked with certain basic information, including the manufacturer of the product, the location and date of manufacture, and the batch or run number (however the manufacturer tracks production runs). All of this information is designed to expedite a recall if one is necessary.
The labels must be “permanent,” meaning that adhesive labels or hangtags are not sufficient. However, Congress specifically referred to “marks” that would enable the consumer to identify the information listed above. These marks could conceivably consist of a numerical code on file with the CPSC, along with information on how to contact the agency so consumers could obtain the data behind the code. This would allow companies to shield proprietary business information, such as the identity of foreign partners, from casual inspection by competitors.
Sellers of toys and other children’s products requested clarification about coding and about the appropriate size and placement of tracking labels. As with many aspects of CPSIA compliance, CPSC staff says it is too overtaxed to provide guidance. In light of this, the National Association of Manufacturers petitioned the agency to stay enforcement of the tracking label requirement until CPSC could provide greater clarity. Unfortunately, however, the two sitting commissioners deadlocked on this request, so there will be no stay of enforcement. The labeling requirement will commence August 14, 2009.
Earlier this year, the CPSC Director of Compliance noted the complexity of the labeling issue and suggested that, even after the August 14 effective date, it should be sufficient for manufacturers and importers to use their best efforts at appropriate tracking labels.
More information on manufacturers’ and importers’ responsibilities under this law is available on AHFA’s website, www.ahfa.us. At the top of the home page, click on STANDARDS, then look for CPSIA in the menu on the left side of the STANDARDS page.
The American Home Furnishings Alliance – located in High Point, N.C., and Washington, D.C. – is the largest association of home furnishings companies in the world and represents more than 240 leading furniture manufacturers and distributors, as well as nearly 200 suppliers to the furniture industry worldwide.