MJSA Applauds CPSIA Tracking Label Clarifications

AUG. 1, 2009 -- The Consumer Product Safety Commission, charged with enforcing the requirements of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA), unanimously approved a Statement of Policy on tracking label requirements in late July, providing needed clarification for manufacturers and suppliers of children’s jewelry that must abide by the act’s rules on lead content.

Among the clarifications was a statement that when items are too small to be marked, the required tracking information can be included on the packaging for the product instead.

“This is welcome news for MJSA members and all manufacturers and suppliers,” said David W. Cochran, president and chief executive officer of Manufacturing Jewelers and Suppliers of America. “Many small jewelry items lack the surface space for permanent labeling with the information required by the law.”

The CPSIA, passed in 2008, established a wide range of rules and regulations governing various safety issues affecting children’s consumer products, including jewelry. The tracking requirements of the law were included so that the source of products needing to be recalled could be located quickly and efficiently.

The new tracking labels policy was especially good news for small-volume manufacturers and crafters of children’s products: They learned that they don’t need to create a labeling system using lot, batch or run numbers, as long as they keep adequate records.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) also acknowledged suppliers’ need for more time to comply with the tracking labels requirement, which is set to go into effect on Aug. 14, 2009. The Commission said it would recognize manufacturers’ and importers’ good faith efforts toward compliance.

MJSA is still working hard in Washington to ensure that children’s jewelry made solely from precious metals and gems is permanently exempted from the requirements of the CPSIA. (Currently, such jewelry is temporarily exempted.) MJSA has educated government officials about the issues surrounding lead contamination in precious metal jewelry, pointing out that even in small amounts, lead can cause cracking and make karat gold jewelry unworkable. Cochran is also pressing the chair and ranking member of the Committee on Energy and Commerce of the U.S. House of Representatives to request that this exemption be made permanent by the CPSC. The committee plans hearings in the coming weeks about ongoing CPSIA compliance problems.

Since the law’s passage, MJSA has kept its members and the industry updated about the act’s requirements and CPSC clarifications, including the recent ruling that crystal and glass beads, including rhinestones and cubic zirconia, will fall under the requirements of the CPSIA. (By a recent 2-1 vote, the board of the Commission denied a petition submitted by MJSA and other associations, including the Fashion Jewelry Trade Association, requesting that these products be exempted from the law’s mandates.) MJSA is also reminding members that on Aug. 14, the lead limit in children’s jewelry drops from the current 600 parts per million (ppm), or 0.06 percent, to 300 ppm (0.03 percent). For paint or a similar surface coating on children’s jewelry, the standard goes from 600 ppm to 90 ppm on the same date.

To help its members comply with the law, MJSA has published a guide to lead compliance, titled Lowering Lead, which contains step-by-step instructions on the compliance process, and includes information from the latest rulings.

Related Press Releases and Articles

Precious Metals, Gems Exempted from CPSIA Lead Testing

Lowering Lead: A Guide to Complying with the CPSIA