TIA calls for delay on CPSIA enforcement
By Staff -- Gifts and Dec, 1/30/2009 12:28:00 PM
NEW YORK—The Toy Industry Association today joined with a coalition of trade groups to call on the federal government to postpone enforcement of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) in the face of continued confusion over how to meet the Act’s requirements.
TIA and representatives of 66 other industry organizations have signed a petition that argues that the CPSIA’s Feb. 10 enforcement date should be changed because the very information needed for industry to comply with the Act’s requirements will not be available until after the deadline.
As an example, TIA notes that a public comment period on proposed rules establishing what is required to meet the new lead limits closes on Feb. 17, 2009; yet enforcement of those requirements is scheduled to go into effect on Feb. 10, 2009.
Most pressing for toymakers and retailers is the requirement that pre-CPSIA products be tested to demonstrate compliance with Act’s new standard for lead or else be pulled from store shelves. That requirement, TIA says, could result in “billions of dollars worth of inventory that may meet CPSIA requirements being removed from shelves and placed in warehouses until the [U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission] clarifies how the testing shall be conducted.”
As a result, the petition requests the CPSC to defer enforcement of the CPSIA’s new lead requirements for at least six months, a delay designed to give Congress and the CPSC the time needed to revisit the law and the implications of retroactive enforcement of its standards.
“The toy industry vigorously supported adoption of the CPSIA, and TIA is fully prepared to help our members and stakeholders comply with implementation requirements that are practical and justifiable,” said Carter Keithley, TIA president. “But the federal requirements must be implemented in an effective and efficient manner or risk chaos in the marketplace and the loss of many safe products.”
“The aggressive enforcement dates that are being imposed on children’s product industries even before the compliance requirements are determined are simply unwarranted,” Keithley added. “Many small and medium sized-companies could be pushed to the point of possible bankruptcy because they will be left holding billions of dollars in inventory that is now worthless, although it poses no safety threat to children.”
According to TIA estimates, the toy industry’s annual investment in toy safety assurance measures has more than doubled in the past two years, rising from $300 million in 2007 to $600 million in 2008. Much of this increase is attributed to duplicative testing requirements that have been layered on top of the tests that are already being called for by retailers and that are self-imposed by the manufacturers themselves.
TIA is developing a Toy Safety Certification Program that it says will provide “an efficient and cost-effective mechanism for certified toy safety testing, helping to minimize redundant testing in the industry.” The first components of the program are currently in pilot testing; the full program is expected to be available by mid-2009.
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