Company Petitions CPSC to Amend Its Regulations to Authorize Alternative Lead Paint Test Methods
The Consumer Product Safety Commission has received a petition requesting that it amend 16 CFR Part 1303 to authorize certain alternative procedures when testing products for compliance with the lead paint ban. The petition also requests an interpretative rule that clarifies test procedures for these alternative methods.
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CPSC seeks comments on the petition by February 26, 2010.
(Note that CPSC's recent "interim enforcement policy" allowing certain component and paint sample testing for Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) lead certification may have already addressed some or all of the petition's concerns. See BP Note.)
Petition Seeks Alternative Test Methods to Reduce Number of Final Products That Must be Destroyed
The petition, filed by Intertek Consumer Goods NA and the American Apparel & Footwear Association, states that in order to meet the third-party testing requirements of the CPSIA for lead in paint on children's products, sometimes several hundred final product samples must be destroyed in order for a third-party lab to obtain a sufficient sample size of paint.
To reduce this number, petitioners request that the following alternative test procedures be allowed by regulation:
Spray sampling. With "spray sampling", a product that normally has a small area of paint or similar surface coating would have a wider than normal surface area coating applied to it, which would then be tested for lead.
Multiple stamping. Similarly, with "multiple stamping", a stamp or other surface coating (like a screen print) would be placed numerous times on one sample in order to scrape off a sufficient mass of surface coating for lead testing.
Finished component testing. In "finished component testing," components of a product that would otherwise be placed on the final product (e.g., multiple heads of a doll; buttons on a children's garment) that are identical in all material respects to those components used in the final products would be tested for lead prior to the final assembly of the product provided that final assembly does not materially affect the chemical composition of the surface coating.
CPSC contact - Rocky Hammond (301) 504-6833 or rhammond@cpsc.gov
CPSC notice (FR Pub 12/28/09) available at http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2009/pdf/E9-30486.pdf
Petition (dated 12/16/09) available at http://www.cpsc.gov/library/foia/foia10/petition/intertekapfa.pdf
BP Note
On December 28, 2009, CPSC issued an "interim enforcement policy" allowing certification of children's and other consumer products to the CPSIA's lead paint and lead content limitsto be based on component and paint sample testing as an alternative to final product testing, as long as certain conditions are met.
(See ITT's Online Archives or 12/29/09 news, 09122925, for BP summary.)