On August 13, 2024, the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC or Commission) published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPR) in the Federal Register proposing new rules for children’s toys containing button and coin cell batteries. This comes fewer than seven months after CPSC adopted the most recent revisions to the mandatory safety standard for children’s toys, ASTM F963, Standard Consumer Safety Specification for Toy Safety (Toy Safety Standard), which became effective in April 2024. The NPR was published less than a year after CPSC finalized regulations under 16 C.F.R. Part 1263 to implement Reese’s Law, Public Law 117-171. Reese’s Law was passed in August 2022 to protect children 6 years old and younger against hazards associated with the ingestion of button or coin cell batteries in other consumer products.
CPSC, however, now asserts that the revised Toy Safety Standard does not go far enough to address the specific hazards presented by button and coin cell batteries. The NPR argues for alignment of the Toy Safety Standard with the performance and labeling requirements contained in ANSI/UL 4200A.
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