Consumer Product Safety Act

Consumer Product Safety Act
Other short titles	CPSA
Long title	An Act to protect consumers against unreasonable risk of injury from hazardous products, and for other purposes.
Enacted by	the 92nd United States Congress
Effective	on the sixtieth day (December 26, 1972) following the date of its enactment (October 27, 1972)
Citations
Public law	92-573
Statutes at Large	86 Stat. 1207
Codification
Titles amended	15 U.S.C.: Commerce and Trade
U.S.C. sections created	15 U.S.C. ch. 47 § 2051 et seq.
Legislative history
	Introduced in the Senate as S. 3419 on 24 March 1972; Passed the Senate on 21 June 1972 ; Passed the House on 20 September 1972 ; Signed into law by President Richard Nixon on October 27, 1972;

The Consumer Safety Act (CPSA) was enacted on October 27, 1972, by the

U.S. Department of Transportation, the U.S. Environment Protection Agency, and the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration

.

The CPSA is codified at 15 U.S.C. §§ 2051–2084. Federal regulations associated with the act are at Title 16 CFR parts 1101 through 1406. These regulations are numerous and include such laws as the Poison Prevention Packaging Act (PPPA), safety standards for such products as bicycle helmets and cigarette lighters, a ban on lead in paint, and a rule concerning size requirements for toys that could be choking hazards for young children.

Related improvements and amendments

On 2008-08-14, the

whistle blowers who take certain actions to raise concerns about consumer product safety. Those who believe they suffered unlawful retaliation for raising such concerns have 180 days to file a written complaint with OSHA

seeking statutory remedies.

It requires manufacturers and importers of all children's products to have batches of their products tested by an independent certified laboratory. It affected, among other things, distribution of children's books which may contain small amounts of lead. Public libraries were forced to pull thousands of books from their shelves.[2] Archived 2009-02-23 at the Wayback Machine Testing books for lead would cost about $300 per book, according to a spokeswoman for the American Library Association, which has opposed the law.[3] In 2011, President Obama signed HR 2715 into law, which exempted ordinary books from testing requirements.

Coffee shops, second-hand goods stores, and others selling children's goods including books manufactured before 1985 may not sell children's goods that violate the lead standards. In order to assure themselves of the safety of those products, they may use a variety of means, the most reliable of which would be lead testing on the products.[4]

The CPSIA law had threatened sales of motorcycles and all-terrain vehicles built for children under 12, as internal parts of the bikes are built with alloys containing a small amount of lead.[5] However, these too were also exempted under the 2011 amendment.

Related improvements and amendments

External links