The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) voted yesterday to extend the stay of enforcement on third-party testing and certification of children's products subject to lead content limits until February 10, 2011. Products must still meet the 300 parts per million (ppm) lead limit now, but certification and third-party testing to show compliance will only be required for children's products manufactured after February 10, 2011.

Additionally, as it continues to work toward recognizing test laboratories, the Commission voted to extend the existing stay of enforcement on third-party testing and certification of many categories of regulated children's products, including the following: children's toys and child care articles with banned phthalates, children's toys subject to ASTM's F-963 toy safety standard, caps and toy guns, clacker balls, baby walkers, bath seats, other durable infant products, electrically-operated toys, youth all-terrain vehicles, youth mattresses, children's bicycles, carpets and rugs, vinyl plastic film and children's sleepwear. Independent third-party testing and certification for these categories of children's products will only be required 90 days after the CPSC publishes the laboratory accreditation requirements for any individual category in the Federal Register. Until such time, the existing stay of enforcement will remain in effect for these children's products.

The existing stay will end on February 10, 2010 for four categories of children's products: bicycle helmets, bunk beds, infant rattles and dive sticks. Any such products manufactured after February 10, 2010, will be required to have certification based on independent third-party testing conducted by a CPSC-recognized laboratory.

Unchanged is the current independent third-party testing and certification required for all children's products subject to the following consumer product safety rules:

• The ban on lead in paint and other surface coatings;
  
• The standards for full-size and non full-size cribs and pacifiers;
  
• The ban on small parts; and
  
• The limits on lead content of metal components of children's jewelry.

The stay of enforcement on general certificates of conformity (GCCs) will remain in effect for certain categories of non-children's products, including adult bicycles, carpets and rugs, vinyl plastic film and wearing apparel. GCCs are currently required for pool drain covers and will be required for several categories of other non-children's products that are manufactured after February 10, 2010.

While enforcement of specific CPSC testing and certification requirements has been stayed for some products, it is important to remember that all products have always and must continue to comply with all applicable standards and bans, including the limits for lead content, lead paint, the ban on certain phthalates and the ASTM F-963 mandatory toy standard.

Component Parts Testing

The Commission also voted yesterday to adopt an interim enforcement policy allowing component parts testing. Under this policy, domestic manufacturers and importers now have a choice in certifying their products. As before, they can have samples of the entire children's product tested by a recognized, independent third-party laboratory. Alternatively, they can now certify their products as meeting lead paint and lead content limits in the following ways:

• Lead in paint: Have test reports from recognized independent third-party testing laboratories showing that each paint on the product complies with the 90 ppm lead paint limit; or have certificates from paint suppliers declaring that all their paint on the product complies with the 90 ppm lead limit based on testing by recognized independent third-party testing laboratories.

• Lead content: Have test reports from recognized independent third-party testing laboratories showing that each of the accessible component parts on the product complies with the 300 ppm lead limit; or have certificates from parts suppliers declaring that all accessible component parts on the product comply with the 300 ppm lead limit based on testing by recognized independent third-party testing laboratories.

A product-by-product chart outlining the current testing and certification requirements is available in today's CPSC press release. Links to the individual commissioners' statements about these votes is also available here.