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Trade and Industry Department The Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region
Brand Hong Kong - Asia world city
MY COLOUR

Commercial Information Circulars

24-hour hotline : 23 922 922

e-mail address : enquiry@tid.gov.hk

Ref : EIC 111/2/21

9 June 2010

Dear Sirs,

Commercial Information Circular No. 269/2010

US : CPSC's Final Rule on Safety Standard for Infant Bath Seats and the Requirements for Accreditation of Third Party Conformity related to Testing of Infant Bath Seats 

The US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) published in the Federal Register (FR) two notices of 4 June 2010. One of the notices is a final rule on the safety standard for infant bath seats, which will become effective on 6 December 2010 and apply to products manufactured or imported on or after that date. The other one is a notice of requirements that provides the criteria and process for CPSC's acceptance of accreditation of third party conformity assessment bodies for testing pursuant to specific CPSC regulations relating to infant bath seats, which is effective on 4 June 2010, and interested parties may submit comments in response to this notice of requirements to the CPSC by 6 July 2010.

DETAILS

Safety Standard for Infant Bath Seats

  1. The safety standard is substantially the same as a voluntary standard developed by ASTM International, ASTM F 1967-08a, "Standard Consumer Safety Specification for Infant Bath Seats", with some modifications to make them more stringent in order to further reduce the risk of injury. The major modifications include (i) limiting the allowable tilt angle of the bath seat at 12 degrees to prevent children from tipping over; (ii) reducing the length of the vertical and horizontal axes of the torso probe for testing the leg openings by approximately 5% and rounding the corners of the probe resulting in a 1.45" radius rather than the current 1" radius size to prevent children from slipping through the leg openings; and (iii) doubling the size of the warning label to alert caregivers infants should not be left unattended in the bath seats. Other details of the safety standard and the testing requirements are set out in the FR notice which is available at http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2010/pdf/2010-13073.pdf.

Third Party Testing for Infant Bath Seats: Requirements for Accreditation of Third Party Conformity

  1. Pursuant to the US Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 and the issue of final rule on safety standard for infant bath seats mentioned above, each manufacturer (including the importer) or private labeller of infant bath seats must have such products manufactured more than 90 days after the publication date of this notice of requirements, tested by a third party conformity assessment body accredited to do so and must issue a certificate of compliance with the applicable regulations based on that testing. 
     

  2. Third party conformity assessment bodies, that wish to be accredited to test the infant bath seats for conformity with the applicable test methods as codified in the new safety standard mentioned above, must be accredited by an accrediting body that is a signatory to the International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation-Mutual Recognition Arrangement (ELAC-MRA) and the accreditation must be registered with, and accepted by the CPSC. The CPSC has established an electronic accreditation registration and listing system that can be accessed via its website at http://www.cpsc.gov/about/cpsia/labaccred.html. Details of the requirements for accreditation are set out in the FR notice which is available at http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2010/pdf/2010-13080.pdf.

ENQUIRIES

  1. For enquiries concerning this circular, please contact the undersigned at telephone number 2398 5682.

Yours faithfully,




(Miss Carmen CHAN)

for Director-General of Trade and Industry