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General Overview of Agency ActivitiesThe U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission is charged with protecting the public from unreasonable risks of serious injury or death from thousands of types of consumer products under the agency's jurisdiction. The CPSC is committed to protecting consumers and families from products that pose a fire, electrical, chemical, or mechanical hazard or can injure children. The CPSC's work to ensure the safety of consumer products - such as toys, cribs, power tools, cigarette lighters, and household chemicals - contributed significantly to the 30 percent decline in the rate of deaths and injuries associated with consumer products over the past 30 years. Overview of Regulatory ActivitiesThe U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) is an independent Federal regulatory agency charged with reducing unreasonable risks of injury and death associated with consumer products. The CPSC has jurisdiction over about 15,000 types of consumer products used in the home, in schools, and in recreation.  To carry out its mission, CPSC administers six statutes passed by Congress:
CPSC has incorporated several voluntary consensus standards into its technical regulations including standards developed by the following organizations:
This list may be incomplete and only attempts to name some of the standards developing organizations from which CPSC has incorporated standards. For more information: Conformity AssessmentCPSC recognizes a variety of conformity assessment approaches including those described on the Information on the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) webpage. For more information: Quick Links
International ActivitiesThe Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) was established in 1972 with the passage of the Consumer Product Safety Act. The primary responsibility of the CPSC is to protect the public from unreasonable risks of injury that could occur during the use of consumer products. The CPSC also promotes the evaluation of consumer products for potential hazards, establishes uniform safety standards for consumer products, eases conflicting state and local regulations concerned with consumer safety, works to recall hazardous products from the marketplace, and selectively conducts research on potentially hazardous products. The CPSC promotes the development of voluntary safety standards and under certain circumstances has the authority to issue and enforce standards and ban unsafe products. In all its activities the CPSC strives to work closely with private consumer groups, industry, the media, and agencies of various state and local governments. Although the CPSC is an independent federal regulatory agency it does not have jurisdiction over all consumer products. Safety standards for trucks, automobiles, and motorcycles are set by the U.S. Department of Transportation; standards for drugs and cosmetics are handled by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA); and standards for alcohol, tobacco, and firearms fall under the authority of the U.S. Department of the Treasury. Nevertheless, approximately 15,000 types of consumer products are regulated by the CPSC. CONSUMER SAFETY LEGISLATIVE HISTORYEarly federal consumer safety legislation dealt primarily with foods, drugs, and cosmetics. The Federal Food and Drugs Act of 1906 (also known as the Wiley Pure Food and Drug Act) forbade the adulteration and fraudulent misbranding of foods and drugs sold through interstate commerce. Other early consumer legislation included the Meat Inspection Act of 1907 (amended in 1967 by the Wholesome Meat Act). In 1933 legislation was introduced to strengthen the Federal Food and Drugs Act of 1906. This legislation mandated the standardized labeling of food products, required that manufacturers prove drugs are safe for the purpose for which they are sold, and established a pre-market clearance procedure for new drug products. Many drug companies opposed this bill; they were joined by much of the nation's print media, which feared the loss of corporate advertising revenue. After a five-year battle in Congress, however, the bill was passed in 1938 as the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. Amendments to the bill in 1962 established biennial factory inspections, disclosure through labeling of dangerous side effects, FDA approval of all new drugs, FDA power to remove dangerous drugs from the market, and the requirement that a manufacturer prove that its drugs are not only safe but also effective for their stated purpose. The scope of federal consumer safety legislation broadened throughout the 1950s and 1960s. The Flammable Fabrics Act of 1953 established safety standards for fabrics used in clothing. The Refrigerator Safety Act of 1956 required that refrigerator doors have inside release mechanisms. The 1962 National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act established federal jurisdiction over motor vehicle safety, while the 1965 Federal Cigarette Labeling and Advertising Act required the famous "Caution: Cigarette Smoking May Be Hazardous to Your Health" label. Other pre-1972 consumer product safety legislation included the Radiation Control for Health and Safety Act of 1968, which dealt with radiation emission levels of electronic products, and the Poison Prevention Packaging Act of 1970, which established packaging standards to protect children from potentially hazardous substances. In 1967 the National Commission on Product Safety was established. It was believed at that time that federal consumer safety legislation was ineffective because it took a piecemeal approach, targeting only specific products for regulation. Supporters of the commission contended that the government needed to establish legislative authority over broad categories of potentially hazardous goods and products. The National Commission on Product Safety was charged with identifying these broad categories of potentially hazardous goods and evaluating existing legal and voluntary methods for securing consumer product safety. The commission subsequently found that "the exposure of consumers to unreasonable product hazards is excessive by any standards of measurement." The commission also asserted that even though consumers must take some responsibility for their own safety, industry must also assume responsibility for the design and manufacturing of safe consumer products. On the basis of their inquiry the commission recommended the creation of an independent federal regulatory agency and a presidential appointee to the commission to serve as a consumer advocate before the new agency. The commission also recommended that the new agency have the authority to issue safety regulations and standards. Thus, the Consumer Product Safety Commission was created in 1972. RECENT DEVELOPMENTSDuring its first decades, limited by budgetary realities, the CPSC was slow to establish a significant and active role in regulating consumer safety nationwide. In recent years, however, the CPSC has emerged as a more visible and vigorous protector of public safety. In 2004, for example, the agency (armed with a budget of $59.6 million) issued more than 350 product recalls, including recalls of more than 30 million toys that were deemed to be a potential health hazard to children. That same year it levied approximately ten times the amount of fines on companies that it had assessed a decade earlier. And Manufacturing News reported that the CPSC has dramatically cut its customer complaint response time in recent years. In 2004, for example, its average response time was less than 6 days. In the late 1980s, by contrast, the agency's typical response time was nearly 50 days. In 2004 the CPSC also launched new initiatives designed to address the explosion in e-commerce. The most visible of these efforts is Operation SOS—Safe Online Shopping, in which agency representatives investigate unsafe and/or illegal consumer goods that are made available over the Internet. Finally, in 2004 the CPSC established a Small Business Ombudsman to help small companies comply more easily with product safety regulations by providing them with a single point of contact for obtaining information and assistance. The CPSC consists of five commissioners, each appointed by the President of the United States with the advice and consent of Congress. One of the commissioners is appointed chairman. The CPSC is headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, with regional offices in Chicago, New York, and San Francisco, and field offices in various cities across the country. The CPSC also maintains a toll-free Consumer Product Safety Hotline (1-800-638-CPSC). BIBLIOGRAPHY"Consumer Product Safety Commission is Back On Track." Manufacturing News. 12 January 2000. Gooden, Randall. "Reduce the Potential Impact of Product Liability on Your Organization." Quality Progress. January 1995. Postrel, Virginia. "When You're In the Danger Business." Forbes. 25 January 1999. U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. 2005 Performance Budget (Operating Plan). March 2005. What is regulated by the CPSC?The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) protects the public from unreasonable risks of serious injury or death from thousands of types of consumer products under its jurisdiction, including products that pose a fire, electrical, chemical, or mechanical hazard or can injure children.
What are unregulated products?The issuance of unregulated products involves private arrangements between the various participants which mostly does not happen in the public domain as these products are not to be advertised publicly.
What are the five institutes of CPSC?Romualdo authored Republic Act 7923 which was presented in congress on July 25, 1994.. Graduate Studies. ... . Institute of Education. ... . Institute of Nursing. ... . Institute of Technology. ... . Institute of Engineering. ... . Institute of Computer Studies.. What are the consumer products?What are Consumer Products? Consumer products, also referred to as final goods, are products that are bought by individuals or households for personal use. In other words, consumer products are goods that are bought for consumption by the average consumer.
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