Summer Edition 2009

• President's Message
• From the Editor's Desk
• News of Note
• ICPHSO News
• From the ICPSC
• Upcoming Events

PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE

First Ever Canadian Meeting

While ICPHSO has been prioritizing and focusing on the international aspect of our organization even more than in the past, it has taken 16 years for ICPHSO to hold a meeting in Canada. Perhaps we were waiting for the perfect time — and that time is now, or actually Oct. 26-28, 2009, in Toronto.

Our Toronto meeting, for which you can register now by going to ICPHSO’s web page at: http://www.icphso.org/conference/2009intl/registration.html, is titled “International Cooperation on Product Safety.” The Toronto meeting is being co-hosted by ICPHSO, Health Canada and the Canadian Standards Association.

This meeting and training symposium, like all of ICPHSO’s meetings, will provide a forum for some of the world’s leading product safety experts to discuss the most relevant product safety issues. Specifically, the Toronto meeting will be focusing on the most relevant new product safety laws that impact every stakeholder involved in product safety. Whether you manufacture, sell, test, market, regulate or use a consumer product, this meeting is critical for obtaining the most up-to-date information about the new product safety laws in Canada and the United States.

Appropriately, the Toronto meeting will provide in-depth information about C-6, the new Canadian Federal Product Safety Law, the new Electrical Safety Framework in Ontario as well as an update about the implementation of the United States’ relatively new Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act.

The Toronto meeting also will provide an opportunity for participants to focus on international efforts to coordinate product safety including recalls conducted by both the US CPSC and Health Canada.

Key officials from Health Canada, including Canadian Health Minister Leona Aglukka; the president of the Canadian Standards Association, Rob Griffin; and Consumer Product Safety Commission's new chair, Inez Tenenbaum will attend the meeting, make official remarks and offer keynote addresses.
 
So, while October, may seem far away, it is not too soon to register for this informative and relevant meeting.

I look forward to seeing you in Toronto!

Rachel Weintraub
ICPHSO President

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FROM THE EDITOR'S DESK

Success for ICPHSO is defined in many ways: number of attendees at our meetings, number of sponsors, good evaluations, etc. I just discovered another one: the number of people who want to make a presentation at our Annual Meeting and Training Symposium.

In ICPHSO's early days — before we asked our membership for presentation proposals — the officers determined the agenda program and then called people to see if they could participate. We have come a long way, baby!

Currently the Symposium Planning Committee uses our membership for proposals based on the following criteria:

1. Potential to attract and engage a multi-stakeholder audience
2. Relevance to key and emerging product safety issues
3. Quality of presentations, based on experience and qualifications of speakers and moderator, along with originality and creativity in content and format
4. Emphasis on providing a range of perspectives on the subject and information from different organizations. Primary purpose should be educational, not a commercial message
5. Potential to provide participants with new insights and knowledge
6. Potential for practical applications and sharing of best practices
7. Where possible, include an international or regional perspective.

Over the past six years we have been receiving approximately 15 to 25 potential presentations per year. This year we received 54. That's right: 54 proposals and the beat goes on.

Ross Koeser
Executive Director, ICPHSO

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News of Note

1. Inez Tenenbaum Sworn In As New Chairman of U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission
2. Europeans Seek Common Complaint System
3. International Recall Standards in the Works
4. CPSC Announces New Section 15 Reporting Features

1. Inez Tenenbaum Sworn In As New Chairman of U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission

Washington, D.C. — Inez Moore Tenenbaum has been sworn in as the ninth Chairman of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). President Barack Obama nominated Ms. Tenenbaum on June 9, 2009; she was confirmed by the Senate on June 19, 2009; and was officially sworn in on June 23, 2009 to a term that expires in October 2013.

“I am honored to have been nominated by the President to lead CPSC and plan to be a consumer advocate for families across the United States,” said Chairman Tenenbaum. “My life’s work has been to improve the quality of life for children and it will continue to be my highest priority at CPSC.”

Ms. Tenenbaum identified three major areas of focus for her common-sense approach to serving as Chairman. “First, I want CPSC to be more accessible and transparent to parents and consumers. By creating an electronic database of product incident reports that consumers can search and by collaborating with state and local agencies and consumer groups, we can give the public confidence that CPSC is working openly and in their best interest,” she stated.

Second, Ms. Tenenbaum will prioritize education and advocacy during her tenure. “My background is in public education and I believe strongly that all consumers should be informed about product hazards, especially those that impact children. I encourage every consumer to log on to CPSC.gov and sign up to receive free e-mail alerts about recalls,” she added.

Third, Ms. Tenenbaum is committed to enforcing the law and working to keep dangerous imports out of the hands of consumers. She stated, “Parents should know that CPSC will improve the standards for toys and durable nursery products to help keep kids safe. We will also create a system that uses third party laboratories, tracking labels, and CPSC staff at major ports, to do our part to ensure that product imports are safe and comply with U.S. safety rules.”

Working closely with the outstanding staff and Commissioners at CPSC is central to the Chairman’s leadership of the agency.
Ms. Tenenbaum was elected South Carolina's State Superintendent of Education in 1998 and completed her second term in 2007. Throughout her career, Ms. Tenenbaum has been an energetic and determined advocate for children and families and has extensive experience in administrative and regulatory matters.

She previously practiced health, environmental, and public interest law with the firm Sinkler & Boyd, P.A. Before attending law school, Ms. Tenenbaum served as the director of research for the Medical, Military, Public and Municipal Affairs Committee of the South Carolina House of Representatives. She carried out the Committee's responsibilities for all legislation relating to public health, the environment, child welfare, social services, adult and juvenile corrections, state military affairs, and local government.

Ms. Tenenbaum served as special counsel to the McNair Law Firm in the area of public school finance prior to being nominated by the President.

She has also served on numerous task forces that provide oversight on children and family services in the state.

Ms. Tenenbaum received her Bachelor of Science in 1972 and Master of Education degree in 1974 from the University of Georgia and her law degree in 1986 from the University of South Carolina. She is the recipient of several honorary degrees and has been recognized by numerous state and community organizations for her civic work on behalf of children and families.

Ms. Tenenbaum is married to Samuel J. Tenenbaum.

(Source: Consumer Product Safety Commission Office of Information and Public Affairs)

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2. Europeans Seek Common Complaint System

The European Commission in July sought comment on a project that seeks a harmonized system for collecting and classifying consumer complaints, including related to safety.

The EU estimates that more than half of consumers wanting to complain about problems use third parties, and there are hundreds of such organizations each with their own methods. The system – which would be voluntary – would focus on collecting common criteria such as selling method, business type and product category. Highlights of the finding of an initial European study on the matter include:

• There are more than 700 third-party organizations collecting consumer complains, which the authors state, “exceed expectations and indicate a much greater scale and potential value of the project.”
• There are numerous methods for collecting, handling and storing complaints, with differences related to varying goals for seeking the data, including giving advice to consumers, information policy decisions, enhancing enforcement, and others.
• There are differences in complaint bodies’ resources, ranging from their being well-staffed and well-funded to being volunteer dependent. These differences affect the detail of data, which ranges from simple spreadsheets to complex databases.
• There is a need for more data related to types of complains and markets involved and a need for most complaint groups to have more detailed methodology.
• There is increasing acceptance of the idea of a harmonized methodology.

Learn more at ec.europa.eu/consumers/strategy/complaints_en.htm.

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3. International Recall Standards in the Works

By Arunjana Das

An ISO project committee is developing an international standard for establishing a global framework for consumer product recall programs. This is an effort to harmonize product recall programs in countries where approaches to policies and regulations for recalls are inconsistent. In an age when goods change hands globally, the new standard is aimed at expediting the international product recall and corrective action process.

In the first meeting of the ISO committee, held in May 2009 in Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia, the panel decided on 2012 as the publication target for the new standard (ISO 10393). ISO/PC 240, Product Recall, as the committee and its work is known, is collaborating with ISO committees for consumer product safety (ISO/PC 243), anti-counterfeiting (ISO/PC 246) and combating fraud (ISO/TC 247).

According to an ISO/PC 240 press release, the new standard is expected to provide a guide for organizations to “plan and execute timely and cost effective product recalls following design flaws, manufacturing defects, or inadequate warning labels or instructions – whether the products are still in the manufacturer’s or distributor’s inventory or retail shelves or in the hands of consumers.”

The new standard also is expected to provide guidelines to organizations regarding the conducting of corrective actions, including repair, replacement, re-purchase and public notice. An efficient process of corrective action will help organizations minimize their legal risks and sustain consumer loyalty, ISO asserted.

ISO/PC 240 is expected to apply to consumer products, including electrical and gas household appliances, and will be useful for manufacturers, retailers, importers, testing organizations, producers of third-party recall services, legal firms, government regulators and consumers/safety organizations, suggested ISO.

Twelve nations have participated in ISO/PC240, and four others, including the U.S. via ANSI, have observer status. Canada, Japan, Malaysia, Korea and South Africa are among the member countries that participated in the Kuala Lumpur meeting. At that event, the ISO Committee extended a call for participation from more interested parties.

(Source: June 8, 2009, Product Safety Letter)

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4. CPSC Announces New Section 15 Reporting Features

You now can get an acknowledgment and copy of a Section 15 report you file with CPSC’s Office of Compliance through our Web-based portal. These features give you an exact copy of the report as filed and an official record that it has been received by CPSC staff.

The Commission’s on-line Section 15 reporting form has recently been further modified to allow the entry of multiple manufacturers, component part manufacturers as well as allowing for the attachment of up to three documents related to the Section 15 report.

CPSC staff strongly encourages firms that need to file Section 15 reports to do so using the Web portal rather than by telephone, whenever possible. You can make a Web-based Section 15 report at virtually any time of day or night and on the weekends (except during occasional periods of system maintenance). The Web-based approach also gets your report to the right people in the Office of Compliance more quickly than a telephone report, which CPSC staff must enter by hand.

The form is at www.cpsc.gov/cgibin/sec15.aspx
Our goal is to improve the efficiency and timeliness with which we process reports and begin working with you to determine whether action is needed to protect the safety of consumers. The quicker manufacturers, retailers and importers report to CPSC, the greater the chance we can prevent incidents or injuries.

Marc J. Schoem, Deputy Director
Office of Compliance and Field Operations
U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission

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