Congress Passes Bill Amending CPSIA
On August 1, 2011, Congress approved H.R. 2715, a bill amending the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 (“CPSIA”). President Obama is expected to sign the bill into law soon. One of the key amendments concerns the upcoming reduction in the lead content limit for children’s products from 300 parts per million (ppm) to 100 ppm, which will go into effect on August 14, 2011. H.R. 2715 provides that the 100 ppm limit will only apply to products manufactured after August 14, 2011. Thus, products manufactured on or before August 14, 2011 must only comply with the less strict 300 ppm and the 100 ppm limit will not apply retroactively to such products, including products already on store shelves.
The bill completely exempts off-highway vehicles and “used children’s products” from the CPSIA limits on lead content. It also provides partial relief for manufacturers of “ordinary books” and “ordinary paper-based printed materials,” as those products will be exempted from the CPSIA’s third party testing requirements. Bicycles also will be exempted from the third party testing requirement and in addition will only be subject to a 300 ppm lead limit rather than the 100 ppm limit. The bill also grants the Consumer Product Safety Commission the authority to modify third party testing requirements if it determines that doing so will reduce the cost of testing without compromising compliance with applicable product safety standards.
This is the fifteenth in a series of Troutman Sanders CPSIA Advisories. If you missed any of the earlier Advisories, please contact Kristy Adams.