Regulations issued in November 2011 by the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) concerning the periodic testing of children’s products and compliance labelling for consumer products took effect from February 8 this year and applies to products manufactured after that date. Children’s products include apparel, jewellery, furniture and other products designed or intended primarily for a child 12 years of age or younger.
From now on children’s products will be subject to periodic testing after their initial certification. This testing must be conducted at least once a year for manufacturers who do not undertake other production testing (using a testing plan developed by the manufacturer), once every two years for manufacturers who implement a production testing plan (which can use first- or third-party testing), and once every three years for manufacturers who conduct testing to ensure continuing compliance using a test lab accredited to ISO/IEC 17025:2005 but whose accreditation has not been accepted by the CPSC (which will usually be in-house labs).
