On December 16, 2009, the Consumer Product Safety Commission responded to the Printing Industry’s petition for an extension of the CPSIA’s testing and certification requirements for children’s books and other printed material that was set to expire on February 10, 2010. The Commission voted to extend the stay for certain products including books and other printed matter for one additional year, until February 10, 2011.
According to the newly revised stay, any third party testing is to be conducted on products manufactured after February 10, 2010. Furthermore, although the Commission will not enforce the independent testing and certification rules until February 10, 2011, the products still must contain lead levels under the current 300-parts-per-million limit set forth by the Act unless a component such as metal coil is painted and then the limit is 90 parts-per-million. In addition, the stay does not include painted parts, which means painted coil used in a children’s book or other printed product must be tested and certified.
On December 16, 2009 The CPSC also voted to approve an updated interim testing policy that allows component part testing, something the industry has been hoping for, rather than testing of the final product. In other words, a printer would be allowed to purchase an already tested and certified spiral binding or toy component to be attached to the book, rather than having to put the entire finished book through a costly testing process. Such testing must be done by a recognized third party laboratory. This policy also confirms that if a product is made with materials that the Commission has concluded would not exceed lead limits and thus are “low lead” products (such as paper, CMYK inks, coatings, animal based glues, etc.) neither have to be tested nor are subject to a certification requirement. All products must still comply with the applicable requirements. The updated interim enforcement policy can be found at www.cpsc.gov/businfo/frnotices/fr10/comppol.pdf.
