The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) has issued a final rule concerning the determination that certain products or materials do not contain lead or contain lead at levels that do not exceed the lead content limits under Section 101(a) of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 (CPSIA). The effect of such a determination relieves the material or product from the testing requirements of Section 102 of the CPSIA to support the required certifications but does not relieve the material or product from complying with the applicable lead limit if the product or material is changed or altered in such a way that it exceeds the lead content limits. Therefore, manufacturers and importers remain responsible for verifying that the material or product has neither been altered nor modified, nor has experienced any change in the processing, facility or supplier conditions that could impart lead into the material or product to ensure that it meets the statutory lead levels at all times.

The materials and products which are exempted from testing as a result of this rule include:

• Precious gemstones (diamond, ruby, sapphire, emerald);
• Certain semiprecious gemstones, provided that the mineral or material is not based on lead or lead compounds and is not associated in nature with any mineral that is based on lead or lead compounds;
• Natural or cultured pearls;
• Certain metals and alloys, including surgical steel, precious metals, such as gold (at least 10 karat); sterling silver (at least 925/1000); platinum; palladium; rhodium; osmium; iridium; and ruthenium, but not including non-steel or non-precious metal components of a product, such as solder or base metals in electroplate, clad, or fill applications;
• Wood;
• Paper and similar materials made from wood or other cellulosic fiber, including, but not limited to, paperboard and linerboard;
• Plant-derived and animal-derived materials that have not be adulterated or modified, including, but not limited to, animal glue, beeswax, seeds, nut shells, flowers, bone, sea shell, coral, amber, feathers, fur and untreated leather.
• CMYK process printing inks. However, inks used in any after-treatments, such as screen prints, decals, transfers, and other prints are not exempt from testing and certification. Laminates, including plastic sheet or film or other coatings, such as foils, that do not become part of the substrate, also would require testing and certification.
• Textiles:
  • Natural fibers, whether dyed or undyed, including, but not limited to, cotton, silk, wool, hemp, flax, and linen;
  • Manufactured fibers, whether dyed or undyed, including, but not limited to, rayon, azlon, lyocell, acetate, triacetate, rubber, polyester, olefin, nylon, acrylic, modacrylic, aramid and spandex;
  • Although most pigments do not contain lead, there may be some lead-based paints and pigments on non-textile materials that may be directly incorporated into textile products or added to the surface of textiles, such as decals, transfers, and screen printing. All such non-textile components must be tested for lead content under section 102 of the CPSIA unless they are made entirely from materials that the Commission has determined would not contain lead in excess of the CPSIA lead limits.

This final rule became effective on August 26, 2009. For further details, or to read the rule in its entirety, as published in the Federal Register, click here.

Summary of other recent CPSIA developments:

• The limit for lead in children's products dropped from 600 parts per million (ppm) to 300 ppm as of August 14, 2009.
• The limit for lead in paint and similar surface-coating materials for consumer use dropped from 600 ppm to 90 ppm as of August 14, 2009. This lead paint limit also applies to toys and other articles intended for children, as well as certain furniture products.
• Tracking labels are required on any consumer product primarily intended for children 12 and younger made on or after August 14, 2009.
• Advertisements for certain toys and games appearing in catalogues and other printed materials distributed on or after August 9, 2009, regardless of when they were printed, must include the appropriate warnings regarding potential choking hazards to children younger than three. The requirement to include warnings in Internet advertisements went into effect on December 12, 2008. There was a grace period for the requirement for catalogues and other printed materials, but this grace period expired August 9, 2009.
• On July 17, 2009, the CPSC denied a request to exclude crystal and glass beads, including rhinestones and cubic zirconium, from lead content limits.
• On July 30, 2009, the CPSC issued a new draft policy statement recommending that the phthalates prohibition be interpreted to mean that the sale of children's toys and child care articles containing more than 0.1 % of the specified phthalates in each individual plasticized component part is prohibited. If adopted, this policy would eliminate the need to test non-plasticized component parts of children’s toys and child care articles.
• In August 2009, the CPSC released a report entitled the Study on the Effectiveness, Precision, and Reliabilty of X-ray Fluorescence Spectrometry and Other Alternative Methods for Measuring Lead in Paint which concluded that, currently, XRF technology is suitable for CPSIA testing for lead in polymer substrates but not for testing of lead in paint films.
• Civil penalties have increased substantially, to a maximum of $100,000 per violation and up to a maximum of $15 million for a related series of violations.

STR's product safety experts continue to monitor closely all new developments pertaining to the CPSIA and will bring those developments to your attention via STR's Monitor News Services.