March 2018
North America News
Below is a summary of recently updated ASTM standards:
| ASTM Standard No. | Detail |
| ASTM F406-17 | Standard Consumer Safety Specification for Non-Full-Size Baby Cribs/Play Yards Establishes testing requirements for structural integrity and performance for non-full-size cribs/play yards, for both rigid sided and mesh/fabric assemblies. It also provides requirements for labeling and instructional material. |
On November 30, 2017, the US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) issued an advance notice of proposed rulemaking on Federal Register, 82 FR 56752, regarding safety rules for clothing storage units tipping over.
According to the notice, the CPSC is aware of numerous injuries and deaths resulting from furniture tip overs. Therefore, to address the risk, the CPSC staff reviewed incident data for furniture tipping over. It was determined that clothing storage units consisting of chests, bureaus and dressers were the primary furniture category involved in fatal and injury incidents. Thus, the CPSC is inviting comments concerning the risk of injury associated with clothing storage units tipping over. The comment period ends April 14, 2018.
On February 1, 2018, the US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) issued a final rule on Federal Register, 83 FR 4578, regarding third party laboratories testing requirements for specified phthalates in children’s toys and child care articles.
According to the Consumer Product Safety Act (CPSA), consumer products subject to rule, ban, standard or regulation enforced by the CPSC shall be tested and certified for compliance through an accredited third-party conformity assessment body (TCB).
In the final rule, updates are provided regarding the requirement for the accreditation of third party laboratories to assess conformity to 16 CFR 1307 - Prohibition of certain phthalates in toys and child care articles, which was established on October 27, 2017 (See test). These updates will be effective April 25, 2018.
During the two years from the date of publication of the final rule, the CPSC will accept testing results to the new phthalates prohibitions from laboratories that are CPSC-accepted to the old method(CPSC-CH-C1001-09.3(2010)) to allow adequate time for laboratories to apply to the new method (CPSC-CH-C1001-09.4(2018)).
US CPSC Issues Direct Final Rule to Expand the Exemption for Certain Plastics in Phthalates Prohibition in Toys and Child Care Articles
On January 26, 2018, the US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) issued a direct final rule on Federal Register, 83 FR 3583, to revise the exemption for certain plastics in relation to the updated phthalates prohibition in toys and child care articles.
On January 26, 2018, the US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) issued a direct final rule on Federal Register, 83 FR 3583, to revise the exemption for certain plastics in relation to the updated phthalates prohibition in toys and child care articles.
In the recent updates on phthalates prohibitions (16 CFR 1307), a revision has been made to the phthalates included on the list (See test). Thus, the CPSC issued a direct final rule to revise the phthalates in order to match with the updated prohibition. Therefore, 16 CFR 1308, regarding the determination of certain plastics to be exempted from third party testing requirements, is expanded to the updated prohibition (See test).
The direct final rule will be effective April 25, 2018.
On January 6, 2018, the Department of the Environment (DOE) and the Department of Health (DOH) proposed Prohibition of Asbestos and Asbestos Product Regulations. Meanwhile, the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, 1999 was proposed to be updated to include additional types of asbestos.
One year after DOE and DOH issued a notice of intent to develop regulations regarding asbestos, they proposed the regulations and the key requirements for consumer products that are summarised below:
A person must not manufacture a product that contains asbestos
A person must not import, sell or use processed asbestos fibre or a product that contains asbestos
The Export Control List of Canadian Environmental Protection Act, 1999 was also amended to include:
Part 2 Substances Subject to Notification or Consent
Methamidophos (CAS 10265-92-6)
Actinolite (CAS 77536-66-4)
Anthophyllite (CAS 77536-67-5)
Amosite (CAS 12172-73-5)
Crocidolite (CAS 12001-28-4)
Tremolite (CAS 77536-68-6)
Part 3 Restricted Substances
Chrysotile asbestos (CAS 12001-29-5)
The proposed amendment is under a comment period until March 22, 2018.
Europe News
On January 11, 2018, Commission Regulation (EU) 2018/35 was published to add Octamethylcyclotetrasiloxane (D4) and Decamethylcyclopentasiloxane (D5) to the Annex XVII List of Restriction under Regulation (EC) No. 1907/2006 (REACH). The effective date of the regulation was January 31, 2018.
In the regulation, usage of Octamethylcyclotetrasiloxane (D4) and Decamethylcyclopentasiloxane (D5) are restricted and it will be enforced starting on January 31, 2020 (See test).
| Item | Chemical | Chemical Abstract Service (CAS) Number (European Community (EC) Number) | Conditions |
| 70 | Octamethylcyclotetrasiloxane (D4) Decamethylcyclopentasiloxane (D5) | 556-67-2 (209-136-7) 541-02-6 (208-764-6) | 1. Shall not be placed on the market in wash-off cosmetic products in a concentration equal to or greater than 0.1% by weight (Wash-off cosmetic products mean cosmetic products that are washed off with water after application) |
A principios de 2018, la Agencia Europea de Sustancias y Preparados Químicos (ECHA) propuso modificar el anexo XVII del Reglamento (CE) nº 1907/2006 Registro, Evaluación, Autorización y Restricción de Sustancias y Preparados Químicos (REACH) mediante notificaciones de la Organización Mundial del Comercio (OMC). En el anexo XVII se añaden determinadas sustancias químicas como sustancias restringidas en el sector textil y del calzado.
A partir de su aplicación, las siguientes sustancias químicas no se colocarán en la ropa o accesorios relacionados, productos textiles (entran en contacto con la piel en una medida similar a la ropa) y calzado:
| Sustancias | Nº CAS | Límite (mg/kg) |
| Cadmio y sus compuestos | - | 1 |
| Compuestos de cromo VI | - | 1 |
| Compuestos de arsénico | - | 1 |
| Plomo y sus compuestos | - | 1 |
| Benceno | 71-43-2 | 5 |
| Benz[a]antraceno | 56-55-3 | 1 |
| Benz[e]acefenantrileno | 205-99-2 | 1 |
| benzo[a]pireno; benzo[def]criseno | 50-32-8 | 1 |
| Benzo[e]pireno | 192-97-2 | 1 |
| Benzo[j]fluoranteno | 205-82-3 | 1 |
| Benzo[k]fluoranteno | 207-08-9 | 1 |
| Criseno | 218-01-9 | 1 |
| Dibenc[a,h]antraceno | 53-70-3 | 1 |
| α, α,α,4-tetraclorotolueno; pclorobenzotricloruro | 5216-25-1 | 1 |
| α, α, α-triclorotolueno; benzotricloruro | 98-07-7 | 1 |
| α-clorotolueno; cloruro de bencilo | 100-44-7 | 1 |
| Formaldehído | 50-00-0 | 75 300 (sólo para chaquetas, abrigos o tapicerías en los 3 años siguientes a la entrada en vigor) |
| ácido 1,2-bencenodicarboxílico; di-C 6-8-alquilésteres ramificados, ricos en C 7 | 71888-89-6 | 1000 |
| Bis(2-metoxietil) ftalato | 117-82-8 | 1000 |
| Diisopentilftalato | 605-50-5 | 1000 |
| Di-n-pentiloftalato (DPP) | 131-18-0 | 1000 |
| Di-n-hexil ftalato (DnHP) | 84-75-3 | 1000 |
| N-metil-2-pirrolidona; 1-metil-2-pirrolidona (NMP) | 872-50-4 | 3000 |
| N, N-dimetilacetamida (DMAC) | 127-19-5 | 3000 |
| N,N-dimetilformamida; dimetilformamida (DMF) | 68-12-2 | 3000 |
| 1,4,5,8- tetraaminoantraquinona; C.I. Disperse Blue 1 | 2475-45-8 | 50 |
| Clorhidrato de bencenamina, 4,4'-(4- iminociclohexa-2,5- dienilidenmetileno)dianilina; C.I. Basic Red 9 | 569-61-9 | 50 |
| [4-[4,4'- bis(dimetilamino)benzohidrilideno]ciclohexa-2,5-dien-1- ylideno]cloruro de dimetilamonio; C.I. Basic Violet 3 con ≥ 0,1 % de cetona de Michler (nº CE 202-027-5). | 548-62-9 | 50 |
| Cloruro de 4-cloro-o-toluidinio | 3165-93-3 | 30 |
| Acetato de 2-naftilamonio | 553-00-4 | 30 |
| 4-metoxi-m-fenileno diamonio sulfato; 2,4- diaminoanisol sulfato | 39156-41-7 | 30 |
| Clorhidrato de 2,4,5-trimetilanilina | 21436-97-5 | 30 |
| Quinolina | 91-22-5 | 50 |
La restricción propuesta no se aplica a:
Prendas de vestir, accesorios o calzado fabricados exclusivamente con cuero natural, piel o cuero.
Fijaciones no textiles y accesorios decorativos no textiles
Ropa, accesorios o calzado de segunda mano
Ropa, accesorios relacionados o calzado que entren en el ámbito de aplicación del Reglamento (UE) 2017/745 sobre equipos de protección individual.
Textiles diseñados para un uso único o limitado en el tiempo y que no están destinados a un uso posterior para el mismo fin o uno similar.
Australia/New Zealand News
En Australia, cuando se identifican peligros en los productos de consumo, estos se retiran del mercado y se publican en el Product Safety Australia, que se actualiza diariamente. A continuación se resumen las retiradas de Australia de julio de 2017 a enero de 2018:
| Peligros | Frecuencia |
| Peligro de lesiones | 26 |
| Peligro de asfixia | 25 |
| Peligro de incendio | 14 |
| Peligro de quemaduras | 10 |
| Peligro de descarga eléctrica | 8 |
| Peligro químico | 5 |
| Otros peligros | 21 |
* Otros Peligros incluyen Peligro de Ahogamiento, Peligro de Caída, Peligro de Ingestión, Peligro de Laceración, Peligro Microbiano, Peligro de Escaldadura, Peligro de Estrangulación, Peligro de Asfixia e Infracción de la Norma de Seguridad con una frecuencia inferior a 5.
| Categorías de productos | Frecuencia |
| Juguetes y artículos de puericultura | 36 |
| Electrodomésticos (secador de pelo, plancha, etc.) | 12 |
| Artículos deportivos / Equipamiento | 8 |
| Herramientas y hardware | 6 |
| Material en contacto con alimentos | 5 |
| Tejido / Textil / Confección / Textil hogar | 5 |
| Otras categorías^ | 20 |
^ Otras categorías incluyen Velas y artículos para quemar y accesorios, Ordenadores / Audio / Vídeo / Otros productos electrónicos y accesorios, Cosmética / Cuidado corporal, Calzado, Muebles, Artículos para el hogar (sin contacto con alimentos), Joyería, Relojes u otros accesorios de moda, Equipos de iluminación y Andadores para personas mayores con una frecuencia inferior a 5.
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