Commercial Information Circulars

24-hour hotline : 23 922 922

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

Ref : EIC 111/2/21

7 April 2011

Dear Sirs,

Commercial Information Circular No. 209/2011

US : Revision to the Notice of Requirements for Accreditation of Third Party Conformity Assessment Bodies for Lead Paint Ban

The US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) issued in the Federal Register (FR) of 5 April 2011 a notice to amend the criteria and process for CPSC's acceptance of accreditation of third party conformity assessment bodies for testing to the lead paint ban at 16 CFR part 1303. The amendment will require a third party conformity assessment body to specify the CPSC and/or ASTM published test methods in the scope of its accreditation. The revision to the notice of requirements has taken effect on 5 April 2011. Interested parties may submit comments in response to this notice to the CPSC by 5 May 2011. The FR notice is available at: http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2011/pdf/2011-7905.pdf.

DETAILS

2.The US Consumer Product Safety Act (CPSA), as amended by the US Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 (CPSIA), requires the CPSC to publish a notice of requirements for accreditation of third party conformity assessment bodies to test children's products for conformity with the CPSC regulations at 16 CFR part 1303, Ban of Lead-Containing Paint and Certain Consumer Products Bearing Lead-Containing Paint (the lead paint ban). Pursuant to the CPSIA, the lead limit in paint and other surface coatings has been reduced to 90 parts per million (ppm) as from 14 August 2009.

3.The trade was informed via Commercial Information Circular No. 481/2008 that the CPSC published in the FR of 22 September 2008 a notice of requirements for accreditation of third party conformity assessment bodies to test children's products for conformity with the lead paint ban. It was also stipulated that each manufacturer (including the importer) or private labeller of children's products subject to the lead paint ban must have such products manufactured after 21 December 2008 tested by a third party conformity assessment body accredited to do so, and must issue a certificate of compliance with the lead paint ban based on that testing.

4.In response to requests to specify test methods to ensure that accreditation bodies are able to determine the acceptable technologies and methods for lead analyses, the CPSC is amending the 2008 notice of requirements to require reference of specific test methods for CPSC's acceptance of accreditation of third party conformity assessment bodies to assess conformity with the lead paint ban. One or more of the following test methods must be referenced:

1. the existing CPSC Standard Operating Procedure for determining Lead (Pb) in Paint and other similar Surface Coatings, CPSC-CH-E1003-09 and/or CPSC-CH-E1003-09.1, which are available at : http://www.cpsc.gov/about/cpsia/CPSC-CH-E1003-09.pdf and http://www.cpsc.gov/about/cpsia/CPSC-CH-E1003-09_1.pdf respectively;
2. ASTM F 2853-10, "Standard Test Method for determination of Lead in Paint Layers and similar Coatings or in Substrates and Homogenous Materials by Energy Dispersive X-ray Fluorescence Spectrometry using Multiple Monochromatic Excitation Beams", which is available on the ASTM website at:
   http://www.astm.org/Standards/F2853.htm.

5.All existing CPSC-accepted third party conformity assessment bodies for testing to the lead paint ban will have two years from the publication of this notice to reapply and be accepted by the CPSC for one of the required test methods in order to maintain CPSC-accepted status. New applicants seeking CPSC acceptance of accreditation must apply with reference to a specific test method after one year from the publication of this notice. 
 

6.For details of the requirements for accreditation, please refer to the above-mentioned FR notice, which contains the revised Notice of Requirements for Accreditation of Third Party Conformity Assessment Bodies for Lead Paint Ban. 

ENQUIRIES

7.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