HOW-TO
By Jim Hingst
Regulations
The Latest on the CPSIA
Environmental regulations can affect certain segments of your output.
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re you manufacturing any products intended for use by children ages twelve or under? Keep in mind that a children’s product could be something as innocuous as a screen or digitally printed T-shirt or an embellished blackboard in a daycare or school. If so, the requirements for product testing and documentation stipulated by the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) apply to you. Implementation of the new Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) law went into effect at the end of last December. So if you plan to manufacture or import children’s prod-
ucts, ongoing testing and detailed documentation will be a requirement.
Ongoing Testing One-time testing just doesn’t cut it (even if you’re ordering the identical raw materials from the same vendor). If the raw materials came from different batches, each batch must be tested. As a printer, if you order a variety of base colors, each color must be tested for each batch. If your vendor has submitted the inks or other raw materials for testing, you are responsible for maintaining the documents that validate compliance. Don’t take the manufacturer’s word that everything is hunky-dory. The vendor’s assurances that they are in compliance frankly doesn’t amount to a hill of beans. As Ronald Reagan once counseled: “Trust, but Verify!” You (not your supplier) are required to maintain records. Your documentation should include the following: l The name and physical address of the accredited testing facility; l Physical proof that the lab conducting the testing was accredited by the CPSC; and l Documentation of the test method used and a test report for each component tested.
Who is Responsible for CPSIA? President George W. Bush signed the bill into law near the end of his administration in August of 2008. But while our politicians wrote and implemented the law, the real boogey man responsible for
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Sign Builder Illustrated // July 2012
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