CPSC Unveils Testing Facility as Recall Management Tool

By Mike Rozembajgier

The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) recently announced the opening of a brand new, state-of-the-art scientific testing facility. The many features of the new facility give the agency significantly improved oversight and regulatory capabilities and will help raise its profile as it seeks to play a greater role in identifying products that need to be recalled. With the CPSC ramping up its testing efforts, manufacturers and retailers must be more vigilant in their recall planning and recall management efforts.

The new center gives the CPSC an almost 250 percent increase in lab testing space, new equipment, and new and improved testing chambers that will allow the agency to complete more in-house testing than previously possible. The center now has nine labs for the specialized testing of imported and domestic goods, including children’s toys and electronics among a wide range of other consumer products.

The new center also adds 75 more engineers and scientists, almost doubling the number previously assigned. With increased capabilities and an enlarged staff, the CPSC claims that its new center will save taxpayer money by allowing it to use fewer outside sub-contractors for its product tests. A recent Kansas City Star article about the grand opening notes that the new center “will give Washington more muscle in preventing Americans from buying and using unsafe products.”

At the center’s grand opening, Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL), who helped secure funding for the new facility, said that “this state-of-the-art testing facility marks the next step in our efforts to rebuild CPSC into our premier watchdog agency. America’s families can sleep better at night knowing that the consumer-safety cops are on the beat and in the lab.”

The new CPSC center is the latest signal that the consumer safety agency is actively working to meet the oversight needs of an increasingly fast-paced global marketplace. In 2008, Congress increased CPSC’s regulatory authority following an upsurge in recalls of Chinese-made children’s toys contaminated with high levels of lead. After being confirmed as the agency’s new head the following year, CPSC Chairman Inez Tenenbaum made it clear that overseeing the implementation of that new law would be her top priority.

At the center’s grand opening, Tenenbaum said that the new safety labs will “enable the agency to do better, faster and cheaper tests of the products its inspectors confiscate at the nation’s ports and in unannounced retail store sweeps.” As the agency gets settled in to its new facilities, manufacturers should make sure that they are meeting safety compliance standards and are prepared to manage a recall should one ever be necessary.

Stericycle ExpertRECALL™ is the industry leader in recall logistics and regulatory compliance for consumer product, pharmaceutical, medical device, juvenile product, and food and beverage recalls. ExpertRECALL’s professionals are experts in recall management who can help you streamline the entire product recall process.