Know what is in your environment

Earlier this week, the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) issued an extension on the stay of enforcement of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA).  The stay has been extended on the certification and third-party testing of children’s products until 2/11/2011.  Manufactures, importers, retailers, resellers, crafters and charities still all need to ensure that the products they sell still meet lead content limits and other regulations. 

How are these businesses they suppose to ensure and determine that their children’s products they sell don’t contain lead and other regulated metals when testing and certification are not yet required?

According to the CPSC, business guidance:

There are several things manufacturers can do to be highly confident that their products are compliant:

Get to know your product and the laws and regulations that affect you. Know what is and is not required of you and your products. These requirements can change. 
 
Develop sound business processes that put safety (and meeting safety standards) first. 
 
Although there may be no requirement to test and certify, you may choose to do so in the context of a quality assurance program, which ensures products will meet the requirements of the law. This may include testing raw materials, components and final products. This will also make it easier for you to meet the mandatory third?party testing and certification requirements when they become effective. For lead content testing, one solution would be to hire a qualified, trained person who can quickly screen all of your raw materials and finished products with a handheld device called an X?Ray Fluorescence (XRF) machine. 
 
If you choose not to test, ask your suppliers about the chemical/material content of their products. Seek out materials that will enable you to produce products that are in compliance.

How is a business to determine if something has lead in it before it is sold?

Resellers, in particular, need to make sound business decisions about the products they sell. As a practical matter, you must either:

Test the product; 

Refuse to accept or sell the product, which will mean disposing of it if you already have it in your inventory; 

Use your best judgment based on your knowledge of the product; or, 

Contact the manufacturer about questionable products.

It would make sense to test, rather than discard, any suspect children’s products that have a high resale value. You may want to hire a qualified, trained person in your area who can quickly screen all of your suspect products with a handheld device called an X?Ray Fluorescence (XRF) machine.

The stay is currently extended until February 10, 2011 at which time all children’s products will need to be tested and certified by a third-party laboratories, which utilize specific testing methods and standards.

My belief is that X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) should be more applicable within the regulations.    XRF analyzers can identify all heavy metals within the CPSIA regulations of children’s products; they are mobile, non-destructive and provide fast, accurate, inexpensive testing.

Logically, if you use XRF to screen all materials, substrates and colors of a child’s product and XRF proves that the regulated elements (i.e. lead, cadmium, antimony) are not present, why would you require destructive, expensive testing?

Logically, if you use XRF to screen all materials, substrates and colors of a child’s product and XRF proves that the regulate elements (i.e. lead, cadmium, antimony) are present, than further testing by traditional testing methods should be required.

In my opinion, X-Ray Fluorescence offers an opportunity for businesses to ensure that their products don’t contain lead and other harmful metals while reducing business expenses, getting products to market faster, helping comply with regulations and creating jobs.

XRF analyzers are great for helping people and businesses “know what is in their environment!”