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Welcome to the Play It Safe blog

April 24, 2009 This is my first blog ever, and I’m excited by the opportunity. Two years ago, I wouldn’t have thought of doing this. What could I have said about toy safety then?

At that point, I had been working in STR’s toy safety department since 1985 and CPSC toy safety regulations had been in place for literally decades. Most of the toy companies that STR worked with were also testing to the voluntary ASTM F963 standard. Yes, there were recalls of toys but there have always been recalls of toys, primarily due to small parts choking hazards and lead in paint. The years brought innovations such as CPSC’s fast track recall program and the on-line NEISS database, while then-Chairman Ann Brown shone a public spotlight on the agency with her Katie Couric interviews. The toy safety industry continued to move forward in a natural progression. While toy safety was the focus of my work life, it was not a hot topic for those outside of the industry.

Then 2007, the “Year of the Recall,” hit – followed quickly by the initiation of development of TIA’s Toy Safety Certification Program in August 2007 and the August 2008 Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA). Suddenly, the toy safety industry had changed forever.

The CPSIA has been called the most comprehensive overhaul of US consumer product safety laws since the CPSC was created in the 1970s. I agree. While many toy companies had been doing the right thing all along, I was amazed at the number of companies that contacted STR after the very public recalls of the summer of 2007 asking what this lead in paint issue was all about and should they test the paint on their toys. So we educated a lot of toy manufacturers and distributors on the safety requirements that apply to their product. I learned, to my surprise and disappointment, that many companies had either not been aware of the safety regulations that apply to toys and of the potential hazards to children in not meeting these requirements—or they knew about the requirements but did not feel that it applied to their products.

The CPSIA helps put everyone on a level playing field in that all toys will need to be tested for regulatory compliance by a CPSC accredited third party lab. It will no longer be just those “good” companies who have been testing all along, but all companies that now must test to confirm compliance. The bottom line: Safe, compliant products are a good thing. Does the CPSIA go overboard with some of its requirements? Yes, there are requirements that need to be refined, exemptions made, and a common sense approach to testing implemented. My future blogs will discuss some of these issues.

Posted by Susan DeRagon on April 24, 2009 | Comments (3)