Tracking label requirements & CPSIA

The CPSIA compliance has been met with criticism and confusion from small businesses, charities, and others who have complained about expensive testing requirements and vague and sometimes mixed guidance from the CPSC. Recently this was indicated in the blogosphere and twitter about the lack of guidelines from the CPSC about the CPSIA tracking label provision, Section 103(a) of the CPSIA.
The commission finally provided guidelines on the 21st of July. The CPSC commissioner talked to AP 5 days ago and these are the key points.

• The tracking label provision, Section 103(a) of the CPSIA, goes into effect on August 14 and affects only products manufactured on or after that date.
• The guidelines allow manufacturers to be flexible in how they comply with the provision.
• The only requirement is that the tracking information required by statute be ascertainable from the distinguishing marks made on the children’s product and its packaging. "How an individual manufacturer chooses to achieve this end is left to the reasonable judgment of each individual manufacturer." Said Tenenbaum.
• Manufactures can print the “tracking label,” which must be permanent and appear on the product and packaging, anywhere on the product and in any form, as long as it contains the specific source of the product, including the country, city and state where the product was manufacturered, the date of production, and cohort information such as the batch or run number. The information can be printed in full on the product, or a code can be used to allow consumers to find the information online.

Click here to read the Statement of Policy and click here to read a list of FAQs about compliance with Section 103(a).

CPSIA compliant software

I think NGC is the first company to produce a e-sourcing software that helps with CPSIA compliance.
As a matter of fact for their innovative work helping retailers and manufacturers respond to the CPSIA resulted in them getting included in the 2009 Supply & Demand Chain Executive 100 awards.
I am aware from our experience getting a product life cycle management system to be CPSIA compliant is not an easy task.

Inez Tenenbaum's view on CPSIA

Inez Tenenbaum, thenew CPSC head, in her prepared remarks before the U.S. Senate’s Commerce Committee on June 16, noted that the implementation of the CPSIA will be her highest priority.

During questioning, she emphasized the need for common sense and cooperation among the CPSC, the Commerce Committee, children’s product industries, and consumer groups. Tenenbaum also said she was aware of the concerns of small businesses and other constituencies, but that it was too soon to take a position on whether the Act needs to be changed.

Statements likes these strengthen our belief that CPSIA is a reality.Therefore, it is strategically important for ethical and profit oriented managers, like your self, to learn about CPSIA to operate effectively and remain relevant in the childrens products market!

See our service

Consumer Prodcut Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) and QLogitek

QLogitek has been keeping a close eye on the development of the CPSIA legislation in the US and has recently launched a CPSIA Compliance Service, the first in Canada (to my knowledge), to help Canadian exporters to the US.

Our CPSIA consulting team has helped a large Canadian Toy exporter (any guess, who?) to the US meet the new regulations under the CPSIA. I am very happy to say that a senior member of this consulting team, Bob Milette, will be co-editing this blog with me. Bob, has been a Wordpress guy until now, so I welcome Bob to this CPSIA blog running on Blogger!

In the next post, we will provide some information about what you, the reader, can expect from this blog.