Deadline Approaching: Washington State Children’s Safe Products Act Reporting
22 Feb 2013
Another important date this month is Feb. 28th, which marks the second deadline for Washington State's Children's Safe Products Act (CSPA) Reporting rule, which applies to certain children's products.
In my last entry, I talked about the Feb. 8th deadline for the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) Testing and Certification Rule (https://www.intertek.com/blog/2013-02-11-cpsc-testing-and-certification). Another important date this month is Feb. 28th, which marks the second deadline for Washington State's Children's Safe Products Act (CSPA) Reporting rule, which applies to certain children's products.
The CSPA Reporting rule requires reporting for the chemicals of high concern (CHCC) when they are intentionally added, or in certain cases when present as contaminants, in accessible component parts of children's products (for use by children under 12 years of age). The reporting deadlines, provided in Table 1, are phased in based on the size of the manufacturer and the Tier of the product. The CSPA Reporting rule currently has 66 chemicals identified as CHCC.
The Feb. 28th deadline for reporting will be for the Largest manufacturer category (Annual gross sales >USD 1 billion) making Tier 2 children's products (direct prolonged skin contact – clothes, jewelry, bedding, etc.) and the Larger manufacturer category (annual gross sales between USD 1 billion and 250 million) producing Tier 1 children's products (applied to skin or placed in mouth – lotion, cream, pacifier, footwear for children under 3 years of age, etc.). It should be noted that reporting is only required for accessible components.
This chemical reporting rule, along with other State legislation on individual chemical bans, requires a manufacturer not only to know where their products are being manufactured, but also what goes into making them. Guidance documents posted on the State of Washington – Department of Ecology's website (https://ecology.wa.gov/Waste-Toxics/Reducing-toxic-chemicals/Childrens-Safe-Products-Act) provide further information on the person responsible for reporting, the brick of products that require reporting and how to perform reporting, when required.
| Manufacturer Category (annual aggregate gross sales ($) in USD, within and outside State of Washington, based on the manufacturer's most recent tax year filing). | Tier 1 [Products intended to be put into a child's mouth (e.g., children's products used for feeding, sucking, some toys) or applied to the child's body (e.g., children's products used as lotions, shampoos, creams), or any mouthable children's product intended for children who are age three or under (under 4 yr).] | Tier 2 [Products intended to be in prolonged (more than one hour) direct contact with a child's skin (e.g., clothes, jewelry, bedding)] | Tier 3 [Products intended for short (less than one hour) periods of direct contact with child's skin (e.g., many toys)] | Tier 4 [Product components that during reasonably foreseeable use and abuse of the product would not come into direct contact with the child's skin or mouth (e.g., inaccessible internal components for all children's products)] |
| Largest ($ > 1 billion) | August 2012 | February 2013 | August 2013 | case-by-case |
| Larger (250 million < $ ≤ 1 billion) | February 2013 | August 2013 | August 2014 | case-by-case |
| Medium (100 million < $ ≤ 250 million) | August 2013 | August 2014 | August 2015 | case-by-case |
| Small (5 million < $ ≤ 100 million) | August 2014 | August 2015 | August 2016 | case-by-case |
| Smaller (100,000 < $ ≤ 5 million) | August 2015 | August 2016 | August 2017 | case-by-case |
| Tiny ($ < 100,000) | August 2016 | August 2017 | August 2018 | case-by-case |
Do you have a question for Pratik Ichhaporia regarding this deadline or related topic? If so, please leave your comment or inquiry below.
Pratik Ichhaporia,
Director of Technical Services at Intertek