CPSC to Enforce More Detailed Requirements to Make Children's Products Safer

Starting today the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) will begin enforcing stricter requirements of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) in an attempt to make children's products safer and increase consumer confidence.

In the past few months there have been many dangerous infant and children products recalled due to reports of serious child injuries and in some cases death.

Among some of the recently recalled items are Jardine and Simplicity cribs, Safety 1st Stair Gates, Little Tikes Swing Sets, Kolkraft Play Yards, Skywalker Trampolines, Aqua Leisure Baby Floats, pacifiers, clothing products, the list almost seems never ending (for a full list of recently recalled items click here).

Some of the same products that are intended to keep your children safe recently seem to be the products injuring children around the country. 

In order to help families protect their children the CPSC has put the following requirements into effect immediately:

• Lead Content - The lead limit for children's products has dropped from 600 parts per million (ppm) to 300 ppm (this excludes electronics).
• Lead in Paint and Surface Coating Materials - The lead limit has dropped from 600 ppm to 90 ppm.
• Civil Penalties - Civil Penalties are being increased from a maximum of $8,000 per occurrence to $100,000 per occurrence and from a maximum of $1.825 million for a series of violations to a maximum of $15 million.
• Tracking Labels - Manufacturers will now be required to place a tracking label on any product intended for children 12 years of age and under.  This label will contain important product information such as manufacturer, location, date, batch number, run number and model number.
• Catalog Advertising - All advertising for products for children ages 3 to 6 years of age must display choking hazard warnings for children under 3 years of age.

Due to the unfortunate large variety of recalled children's product there have been a lot of injured infants and children.  If your child was injured or died due to a defective children's product or toy contact Frank J. Dito Jr., an experienced Staten Island and Brooklyn New York Child Injury and Product Defect Lawyer, at 718.979.4300.