This standard goes into effect on January 30, 2018
WASHINGTON, D.C. – To help keep infants and babies safe, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) has approved a new federal mandatory standard intended to improve the safety of infant sling carriers and prevent deaths and injuries to young children.
Infant sling carriers are worn by the parent or caregiver and are designed to carry an infant/toddler in an upright or reclined position. Slings generally are intended for infants and toddlers between 8 and 35 pounds. Designs typically range from unstructured hammock-shaped products that suspend from the caregiver’s body, to long lengths of material or fabric that wrap around the caregiver’s body.
The new federal safety standard incorporates the most recent voluntary standard developed by ASTM International (ASTM F2907-15), Standard Consumer Safety Specification for Sling Carriers, with one modification regarding label attachments. CPSC’s rule modifies the ASTM standard to make warning labels more permanent by preventing the labels from being attached to the sling carrier along only one side of the label.
The mandatory standard contains several requirements for sling carriers including:
In addition, the standard requires sling carriers to come with warning labels and instructional literature. These requirements include:
Between January 2003 and September 2016, 159 incidents were reported to CPSC involving sling carriers; 17 were fatal and 142 were nonfatal. Of the 142 nonfatal incidents, 67 reports involved an injury to the infant during use of the product. Among the 67 reported nonfatal injuries, 10 involved hospitalizations.
The effective date for the new mandatory infant sling carrier standard is one year after the final rule is published in the Federal Register.
CPSC advises parents and caregivers to be cautious when using infant slings for babies younger than four months of age. Slings can pose two different types of suffocation hazards to babies.
CPSC recommends the following tips to parents and caregivers when using infant sling carriers.
The Commission is required by The Danny Keysar Child Product Safety Notification Act, Section 104(b) of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 (CPSIA), to issue consumer product safety standards for durable infant or toddler products. In the past seven years, the Commission has approved new federal safety standards for durable infant or toddler products, including full-size cribs, non-full-size cribs, play yards, baby walkers, baby bath seats, children’s portable bed rails, strollers, toddler beds, infant swings, handheld infant carriers, soft infant carriers, framed infant carriers, bassinets, cradles and portable hook-on chairs.
The Commission voted 3-2 in favor of the standard on January 11, 2017.
Certification of children's products must be based upon the passing test results of third party testing. The third party testing laboratory provides the testing services and results but does not issue the children's product certificate.
The manufacturer or importer is responsible for drafting and issuing the CPC. The manufacturer or importer may draft the CPC by itself, at no cost, based upon the the passing test results of the third party testing.
The importer must issue the CPC for products manufactured overseas, and the U.S. manufacturer must issue the CPC for products manufactured domestically. See 16 CFR part 1110.
The manufacturer or importer of a children's product that is subject to children's product safety rules or other standards is always legally responsible for issuing a CPC, even if a third party testing laboratory or another third party provides assistance in drafting the CPC.
There is no cost to create a CPC. The manufacturer or importer drafts the CPC in a word processing document or other system. A sample CPC is found here and the list of citations to be included in a CPC can be found here. (Citations are listed in Section 2 of the CPC.)
There is no cost to file a CPC with the government because filing a CPC with the government is not required at this time.
Some laboratories and consultants may offer to assist you with creating a CPC for a professional fee, but their assistance is optional. The CPSC's Small Business Ombudsman is available to offer you assistance for no charge.
If you are a manufacturer or importer, you must "furnish" the Children's Product Certificate to your distributors and retailers. Additionally, federal law requires you to provide, upon request, a copy of the Children's Product Certificate to the CPSC and to the Commissioner of Customs.
The requirement to "furnish" the CPC is satisfied if the manufacturer or importer provides its distributors and retailers a reasonable means to access the certificate. You can provide an actual hard copy of the certificate to your distributors and retailers, or you can provide a dedicated website with that specific certificate on your invoice. (See the answer addressing electronic certificates below.)
There is no requirement to file a CPC with the government.
The CPC must "accompany" the product shipment and be "furnished" to distributors and retailers. Upon request, the CPC must be furnished to the CPSC and to the Commissioner of Customs.
The law requires manufacturers or importers to issue a Children's Product Certificate; that the certificate accompany each product or shipment of products; that the certificate be furnished to retailers and distributors; and that the certificate be provided to the CPSC, upon request. Accordingly, you do not have to provide the certificate to consumers in direct-to-consumer sales.
Yes. There is a model of how to draft a Children's Product Certificate.
You are not required to, but you may, copy the layout and title the document: "Children's Product Certificate" and include the details pertinent to your product; or, if you prefer, you may create your own form, as long as it captures all of the requirements listed in section 14(g) of the Consumer Product Safety Act (pdf). (The model Children's Product Certificate captures all of the 14(g) requirements.)
Yes. For example, if you are certifying that your product complies with the ban on phthalates, the toy safety standard, limits on total lead content and lead in paint, the small parts requirements, and other applicable regulations, then Section 2 of your Children's Product Certificate would read as follows:
If your product is subject to an additional mandatory regulation, rule, ban, or standard for which third party testing and certification currently is required, then you would also include the citation to that regulation, rule, ban, or standard as well.
The full title of each requirement is provided above for your information only and does not need to be included in your children's product certificate. You need only include the numerical citation code included above or in this listing.
The certificate must be based on passing tests of sufficient samples of each product, conducted by a CPSC-accepted laboratory.
Yes. The law requires each import (and domestic manufacturer) shipment to be "accompanied" by the required certificate. The requirement applies to imports and products manufactured domestically. Under CPSC regulations, an electronic certificate is "accompanying" a shipment if the certificate is identified by a unique identifier and can be accessed via a World Wide Web URL or other electronic means, provided the URL or other electronic means and the unique identifier are created in advance and are available with the shipment.
CPSC requires that certificates of conformity be issued by the domestic manufacturer or the importer of products made outside the United States. This means that an importer cannot simply pass along a foreign manufacturer's certificate of conformity. However, the component part testing regulation, at 16 CFR part 1109, allows importers to use a foreign manufacturer's test results or their component part or finished product certifications of a children's product to issue their own Children's Product Certificate, as long as the importer exercises due care to ensure the validity of the test results or the certificate and receives the documentation required by the rule.
The Commission has issued a rule specifically allowing the use of an electronic certificate, as long as: the Commission has reasonable access to it; it contains all of the information required by section 14 of the CPSA; and it complies with the other requirements of the rule.
If each shipment is materially unchanged from the prior shipment, a single certificate of conformity may be acceptable, but the certificate would need to describe the date range of products covered, using either batch/lot information or other identifying information.
One Children's Product Certificate may apply to (or "cover") multiple batches or lots of productions if you have exercised an appropriate level of due care to ensure the continued compliance of each additional batch or lot of production with all applicable children's product safety rules.
Remember that although a single Children's Product Certificate may "cover" more than one shipment or unit of production if a manufacturer chooses to do so, the certificate would need to describe the date range of products covered, using either batch/lot information or other identifying information. For each new shipment or unit of production entered into the stream of commerce, the Children's Product Certificate would need to be updated to reflect the new group of products. The manufacturer of the finished children's product will need this information to ensure the accuracy of the tracking label affixed to each children's product and its packaging.
No. You do not have to sign the certificate. The act of issuing the certificate satisfies the new law. Any statement that you issue must be accurate whether it is signed or not.
Yes. A registered small batch manufacturer must always certify its children's products as compliant with the underlying children's product safety rules applicable to each product.
For those rules in Group A, the small batch manufacturer must base its Children's Product Certificate (CPC) on third party testing performed by a CPSC-accepted lab.
For those rules in Group B, a qualifying small batch manufacturer does not have to issue a CPC based on third party testing but still must issue a CPC based on first party testing performed by any party, a reasonable testing program or a certificate of conformity provided by a component part supplier. To signal your participation in the program, a registered small batch manufacturer would list its registration number in Sections 6 & 7 of the Children's Product Certificate.
Yes. It is a violation of the CPSA to fail to furnish a Children's Product Certificate, to issue a false certificate of conformity under certain conditions, and to otherwise fail to comply with section 14 of the CPSA. A violation of the CPSA could lead to a civil penalty and possibly criminal penalties and asset forfeiture.
This communication has been prepared for general informational purposes only and is based upon the facts and information presented. This communication does not, and is not intended to, constitute legal advice and has not been reviewed or approved by the Commission, and does not necessarily represent their views. Any views expressed in this communication may be changed or superseded by the Commission.
