Hidden in Plain Sight

Featured ~ Rick Brenner ~ Leave a comment

the Challenge of eliminating Product Hazards

Every year, millions of consumer products are recalled in the U.S. because of safety related defects that expose consumers to unreasonable risks – burns, choking, fire, lacerations, falls, explosion, asphyxiation, and other dangerous hazards. These defects occur in products of all price ranges and from companies of all sizes. No product, brand or company is immune. But it would not be accurate to conclude that because safety defects occur in all types of products and from all types of companies that they are unavoidable. Investigations following product safety incidents inevitably reveal a moment when something that could have been done to avoid the incident was not done, where a wrong decision was taken, a cost was cut, a step eliminated, or when someone in a position to do something, say something or see something, did not, and that made all the difference. With many recalled products, the potential for the problem seems obvious in retrospect, as if it was hidden in plain sight, if only someone had raised a red flag, asked more questions or insisted on more testing. For all of these challenges, the most effective approach is for senior management to redouble their efforts to instill a companywide product safety culture, where the safety implications of every product decision are continuously examined, evaluated and even reevaluated, in a collaborative, pressure-free environment that rewards double checks and caution.

Product safety would be easier if it was something one could specify, as in selecting fabric of a certain denier and tensile strength or requiring compliance with a particular voluntary standard. These decisions are obviously important, but they are only elements of creating a safe product – not the whole task. Product safety would also be easier if it could be one department’s responsibility, like compliance or legal, where a small group of individuals would ensure that all of a company’s products were safe. Such a department could certainly be helpful – for oversight, for education, and for evangelizing a product safety culture – but still just part of the overall task. More than just good design and manufacturing to spec, product safety is the result of a broad range of systematic and disciplined processes in each of these areas, vigilance by all employees involved and a comprehensive program of performance testing, compliance testing and quality management. It is the quintessential example of an objective that requires a unified team effort.

Without a doubt, planning for safety has to begin at the product concept stage, even before a preliminary design is drafted. How will the product work? How is a consumer likely to use it? What kinds of safety hazards can arise with this type of product? Will the environment or locale where the product is used contribute to potential hazards? Lithium ion powered products present hazards in all environments. Electric products present special hazards in wet areas like locker rooms, bathrooms and kitchens. Outdoor products can become hazardous over time as materials are exposed to the elements and degrade. No relevant detail is unimportant when a product is designed.

A critical starting point for product developers and manufacturers is to determine if they have the required technical expertise to design and develop whatever product they’re considering. As companies seek to accelerate their growth, it is common that many will consider products with technologies or features that are beyond the expertise of their internal staff. Experts should be consulted for product design, applicable standards and design expertise for every technology involved. From construction specifications for each component to a detailed bill of materials and performance specifications, each decision has potential implications for product safety. If the culture rewards everyone involved for considering the safety implications of every design decision they make, then no one will have to be reminded to consider safety. It will be automatic.

A valuable methodology most quality oriented companies use to detect and eliminate potential safety issues early in the product design phase is called Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (design FMEA). In an FMEA exercise, a multi-disciplinary team of individuals with diverse expertise brainstorms on all the ways that a product can fail (failure mode) and the potential effects of each failure mode. By estimating the severity of each failure mode, the frequency with which each failure is likely to occur and the systems currently in place to prevent each one, the team can calculate a risk priority number (RPN) for each failure mode and suggest design modifications. In product design, FMEA is a particularly valuable exercise because the more time and effort anticipating what could go wrong, the greater chance that the final product will operate safely and effectively throughout its life cycle.

One additional cautionary note during the design stage concerns prototypes. It is likely that prototypes will be fabricated, constructed or assembled, typically by hand, one-by-one, with greater care and attention than may be possible during mass production. While prototypes are valuable for market testing, performance testing, and compliance testing, product engineers should be wary of how a hand-made, “mothered” prototype might perform differently than a mass-produced piece. At a minimum, actual production pieces should be subjected to the same testing protocol as the prototypes.

Once the design of a product is frozen and a product proceeds to manufacturing, a host of new threats to product safety arise in the factory. To identify what could go wrong, manufacturers and product developers would benefit greatly from a process FMEA – the identical kind of brainstorming done to identify failure modes in product design can reveal process failure modes during manufacturing. What if the raw material supplier delivers a different quality of material than specified? Are there systems in the receiving department to log and test the incoming material and catch this mistake? Were the circuit boards from a subcontractor built to specifications? Have they been certified by an independent lab? From training to tooling to assembly to finishing and packing, there are many questions to be answered to ensure that the final product will be produced exactly as it was designed. These questions are even more challenging if manufacturing is outsourced to a non-owned facility where there may be less direct oversight, cultural differences and a language barrier. Like so many processes that contribute to product safety, these are obvious and basic, but like hazards hidden in plain sight, they’re easy to overlook when faced with a busy workload and other distractions. This is why evangelizing a product safety culture is so critical – so everyone involved in the design and manufacture of products thinks about these issues, automatically, every time.

How serious is the problem? How often do seemingly obvious oversights mushroom into major product safety defects? Recent CPSC recalls show example after example. 1.1 million pocketknives were recalled because a safety failed to engage when the blade was extended. 660,000 lighter torches were recalled because the flame didn’t extinguish when the switch was turned off. One million 4-drawer dressers were recalled because of tip-over and entrapment hazards. 5.7 million kid’s water bottles were recalled because the spouts were detaching and becoming a dangerous choke hazard. 18,800 folding patio chairs were recalled because the metal legs collapsed when someone sat on one.

Some of these recalls may have been caused by a design defect and some by a manufacturing defect. But all of them were foreseeable, obvious and easy to avoid. They were all hidden in plain sight, if only someone was looking.

Product safety is a team endeavor and the product of well-conceived processes in every department involved in product development and manufacturing. It can only occur when design, testing and manufacturing intersect in a unified, coordinated effort. This environment works best in companies who foster a product safety culture that rewards activities that promote product safety. The true reward for companies who create this culture and implement these processes will be the knowledge that its products are safe. If executed well, no customer will ever suspect all the hard work it took to deliver them a safe product. In product safety, a job well done means that your customers never know you did it.

	10 Steps to Product Safety
1	Identify and communicate to all managers and employees their role in product safety.
2	Develop redundant oversight processes to identify flaws in design and manufacturing.
3	Encourage and reward employees who speak up and raise safety issues.
4	Avoid rushing products to market with expedited crash plan development schedules.
5	Assess your capabilities – engage experts for gaps in your internal expertise.
6	Treat all industry consensus standards as minimum acceptable specifications.
7	Establish performance and durability standards for your products and continuously inspect and test.
8	Use FMEA to identify ways your products and processes can fail.
9	Evangelize a product safety culture at all levels of employee and management.
10	Be on guard for safety hazards in your products that are hidden in plain sight.

Ten Ways to Protect Your Clients and Build Your Business

July 30, 2013 ~ Rick Brenner ~ Leave a comment

When you consult with your customers about their promotions or inquire of your suppliers about their products, do you ask questions about product safety and compliance? For your customer – Who will the products be given to? Where will they be distributed? For your supplier – What third-party tests have been performed for these products? If you’re not asking basic questions like these, you’re missing valuable opportunities to distinguish yourself from your competitors. More importantly, you could be putting your customers, your distributorship, your suppliers and even the industry at risk. Yet, putting yourself in a position where you are confident enough to ask the right questions that will protect everyone in the supply chain is a cinch for promotional products professionals. Here’s a list of ten guidelines that that every responsible member of the industry should master.

Learn the basic product safety laws and regulations that affect the promotional products industry. The main one is CPSIA, an acronym for the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act. It’s the federal law that regulates children’s products and toys. If one of your clients has a promotion that involves young children, you must understand how CPSIA applies and what you must verify with your supplier to ensure compliance. There are other federal laws to consider as well, such as those that apply to industry products that come into contact with food, like water bottles, tumblers, coolers and lunch bags. Together with hand sanitizer, sunglasses, and first aid kits, these promotional items are governed by U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulations. Certain states have regulations as well, such as California’s Proposition 65 and Illinois’ lead law. There are industry resources to help you learn these basics – educational sessions at industry events and webinars through trade associations to name a few. You don’t need to know all the technicalities of these laws but you do need to know enough to ask the right questions so you can make informed decisions. A few hours of product safety training is a great start.

Know your products. If you’re a supplier, you should know everything you can about each product in your line. Importers and manufacturers should have technical drawings, a bill of materials (BOM) and performance requirements for each of their products. These documents comprise the basis of quality control and compliance testing. Suppliers should perform risk analyses and use and abuse testing when evaluating new products. Are the products suitable for children? What ages? Distributors should ask related questions when selecting products from suppliers. Has the product been tested by a third-party lab? Which tests have been conducted? Does it comply with each state’s safety laws? What age is it designed for? Is it a child’s toy? The more we know about the products we sell the better job we do to protect our clients.

Know your suppliers. How much do you really know about each of your suppliers? You can learn a lot from a catalog and website but marketing materials don’t tell you the extent of what goes on behind the scenes. Does the supplier have a knowledgeable head of compliance? How does the supplier evaluate new products and vet its factories? What third-party tests does the supplier commission, how often and for which products? Does the supplier have an XRF instrument to test products in-house? What about ink testing? Are some or all of the supplier’s products compliant as children’s products? What is the supplier’s policy on Prop 65 compliance? How will you be indemnified? These are only examples of the kinds of questions you should be asking each of your suppliers in addition to visiting their headquarters and seeing their operations first hand.

Know your clients. Each of your clients is unique. Learn about their differences so you can meet their specific requirements and expectations. Some companies have testing requirements that exceed applicable regulations. Others have written social accountability policies for any factory producing a product with their logo. Companies differ in risk tolerance and rely on you to guide them. Case in point: Federal law permits general use products to be sold for use by young children even if the products are not tested, not certified, and even if they contain more lead than allowed for children’s products. But how would your client feel about handing out a product to children that doesn’t meet children’s product standards? The more you know about each client’s policies and expectations, the better job you can do to meet their individual needs.

Know the intended audience. When you speak to a client about a promotion, always ask about the target audience – who the products are intended for – and the U.S. states where the products will be distributed. If the target audience includes children, this should influence your product selection. Children’s products and toys must meet stringent lead and phthalate requirements, be certified by a third-party lab and carry permanent tracking labels. Certain U.S. states have additional requirements. Illinois, for example, has a lead law that exceeds the federal standard. A best practice for distributors is to highlight on purchase orders to suppliers whether the products are for children and where the products will be distributed. This will help your supplier verify that your products will be compliant with all applicable regulations.

Know the risks. Risk is inherent in all that we do whether we are trying a restaurant for the first time, taking advantage of a bargain price, or selecting products blindly from a catalog. In the promotional products industry, there are product safety risks (will the product hurt anyone), regulatory compliance risks (does the product comply with applicable laws and safety standards), and social accountability risks (could the manufacturing of the product embarrass your client), among others. No matter what you do, no matter how careful you are, no one can eliminate risk entirely. Even the most prestigious brands have product failures, recalls and production gaffes. But you can mitigate risk to a great degree by being aware of risks and making appropriate product and supplier decisions. Your clients put their most valuable asset in your care—their name and logo—when they entrust you to select the products that will bear that name. Treat this responsibility with the care and diligence it deserves. Brand protection is one of your most sacred responsibilities.

Educate the team. For most distributors and suppliers, servicing major customers requires a well-organized team effort. Unless everyone on the team is on the same page, it isn’t likely that you will deliver consistent service, let alone excel. The same principal applies to product safety and compliance. The quality of your safety and compliance initiatives will only be as strong as the weakest link. Take the time to educate everyone on your team in the basics of responsible sourcing.

Stay current. Even though the Consumer Products Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) became effective in August 2008, many of its provisions were phased in gradually and some became progressively more stringent. At first, third party testing was not required and later it became mandatory. Originally 600 parts per million (ppm) was the maximum lead allowed in children’s products, then 300 ppm and now 100 ppm. In addition to phase in rules, the U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission (CPSC) continually develops new rules that either modify existing regulations or introduce new ones altogether. For example, CPSC is currently developing a rulemaking to establish a new federal standard for small, powerful magnet sets which have been sold in the promotional industry as puzzles, sculptures and stress relievers. To help stay current about CPSC changes, go to http://www.cpsc.gov and sign up for email alerts about rule changes, recalls and other product safety news. And, in addition to CPSC, there are other federal and state laws to stay abreast of. For updated news on the entire range of product safety regulation affecting the industry, trade associations and testing labs can be great sources of information.

Instill a Product Safety Culture. Imagine that one day you decide to start eating nothing but 100% organically grown food. Think of the challenges you would have at least three times a day for the rest of your life. What are you going to eat? Where are you going to buy your food? Where does that food come from? How is it grown? How can you be sure? Solve that problem for breakfast today and it starts over again at lunch. Whatever you might have done yesterday to ensure your food supply when you were in Chicago won’t help you at all tomorrow when you’re off to New York. For you to be successful in this new eating habit, planning in advance for the organic food you are going to eat each day and where you are going to obtain it reliably will have to become second nature, as if it were embedded in your DNA. And so it is with product safety and compliance. The kinds of food and ingredient questions you would have to ask every day if you drastically changed your eating habits are the same kinds of questions you should be asking every day to ensure safe and compliant product. What’s in this product? Who is going to use it? Where will it be distributed? How carefully was it made? What was it tested for? Was this shipment tested? How can I be sure? Ensuring safe and compliant product is a daily journey, not a destination. Just like my food example, it requires continuous vigilance and attention, order by order, promotion by promotion.

The more that product safety and compliance becomes second nature and an automatic consideration no matter what client or promotion you’re working on, the more you’ll protect your clients, protect your business and ultimately protect the industry, a responsibility we all have to each other.

This article is scheduled for the October 2013 issue of Wearables Magazine

Updated Toy Safety Standard takes Effect June 12. New Tests Required!

June 11, 2012 ~ Rick Brenner ~ Leave a comment

If you import children’s toys, or if you’re a promotional products supplier with children’s toys in your line, effective tomorrow you’ll need to comply with an update to the mandatory Federal Toy Safety Standard. Among other changes, this revision (ASTM F963-11) adds limits for the soluble amount of eight metals (antimony, arsenic, lead, barium, cadmium, chromium, mercury, and selenium) permitted in toy substrates. The change is effective for toys manufactured or imported after June 12, 2012 for children 14 years of age or younger.

The ASTM F963 Toy Safety Standard used to be voluntary. But in 2008, the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) made ASTM F963 a mandatory standard. At that time, the current version of the Toy Safety Standard was F963‑07 with the “07” signifying the year that the latest revision was adopted. Since then, CPSC has voted to adopt two newer revisions – one issued in 2008 and the latest in December 2011. In February 2012, the Commission announced in the Federal Register its decision to adopt ASTM F963-11 effective as of June 12, 2012.

For the moment, the law requires you to comply with every provision of the new standard – including the 2011 changes – but doesn’t require you to use a CPSC certified third-party lab to test for the 2011 changes. The reason is that the Commission has not yet voted to adopt recently proposed rules for third party laboratories which it published in the Federal Register on May 24, 2012. Comments on these proposed rules are not due until August 7, 2012.

If you have another reliable way to verify compliance for the F963-11 changes—perhaps by testing with an XRF instrument—you could avoid, until CPSC adopts the new rules, the cost of testing the 2011 updates at a third-party lab. However, this waiver only applies to the F963-11 changes. You’ll still need a test from a CPSC certified third-party laboratory for the portions of ASTM F963-11 that are “functionally equivalent” to F963-08.

The risk of third-party testing now for the new requirements of F963-11 is that when the proposed rules are finally adopted by CPSC, the lab you choose may not be accredited for the new requirements and you will have to retest at an approved lab. In my opinion, this is a very minor risk compared to the risk of not having an independent test confirming that your toy complies with the new requirements.

CPSC addressed this in an FAQ on its website:

In the event that a manufacturer or importer wishes to have its products tested now – in the hope that testing to the -11 version eventually will be accepted by the CPSC – that manufacturer or importer should check with its current CPSC-accepted laboratory to see if they will be applying to the CPSC for acceptance of the -11 version. If so, and if the lab satisfies other conditions spelled out in the draft document, then the Commission likely will accept that testing upon its approval of the new Notice of Requirements. (This is not a guarantee of the Commission’s action, but the Commission traditionally has permitted acceptance of such testing, provided that all the other conditions are satisfied.)

It’s always a treacherous scenario in our industry when the law requires strict compliance with a set of standards but doesn’t require third-party testing. For one thing, it places an extra burden on distributors – to verify that the toys they’re purchasing are compliant with the new standard if the supplier or factory does not have a third party lab report verifying compliance.

My advice is to not buy any toy that is imported or manufactured after June 12, 2012 unless you get a report from well-known third-party laboratory verifying compliance with all the provisions of ASTM F963-11.

For promotional products distributors who maintain test reports in their files of children’s toys they order frequently, or for those who have children’s toys in company stores or in other co-op programs, be sure to go back to your supplier for an updated test report.

The full text of the FAQ from the CPSC website can be found at http://www.cpsc.gov/info/toysafety/plain.html

Compliance is Not Enough for Safe Promotional Products

March 14, 2012 ~ Rick Brenner ~ Leave a comment

If attendance at ICPHSO’s 2012 Annual Meeting and Training Symposium is any indication, then the promotional products industry should feel proud of the strides it is making in product safety awareness. From scant industry attendance just four years ago, this year’s symposium, held earlier this month in Orlando, had strong participation by PPAI, by QCA, and by at least a dozen major promotional products suppliers and distributors. But while progress is encouraging, the workshops at ICPHSO made clear that product safety is much more than test reports and CPSIA compliance.

ICPHSO is an acronym for the International Consumer Product Health and Safety Organization. It is the preeminent International product safety organization and is comprised of accomplished compliance professionals from all over the world – manufacturers, retailers, government regulators, attorneys, testing labs, standards developers, academia and consumer advocates. Chances are, if you’re selling promotional products to a major corporation, its product safety team participates in ICPHSO. More than 600 attendees made the pilgrimage to Orlando this year to share their knowledge, to learn from their peers, to network with like-minded colleagues and to mingle with government regulators from countries around the globe.

This year’s major topic was manufacturing and the challenges of producing safe and compliant products consistently in factories all over the world. Traceability and supply chain transparency was a common theme in several presentations. It was comforting to hear that even the largest companies struggle with this issue just as many importers do in our industry. Jennifer Weaver, Director of Quality Assurance at Under Armour, noted that while she closely supervises Under Armour’s factories, her company does not even attempt to trace production from suppliers of items such as buttons, zippers and seams. The consensus seemed to be that each manufacturer/importer must develop a plan based on a risk assessment of its own particular products.

While most product safety initiatives in the promotional industry are focused on compliance – CPSIA, FDA, Prop 65 and similar regulations – ICPHSO has always taken a deeper approach to consumer product safety. Several experts spoke of the importance of avoiding product related injuries by building in safety from the beginning – by designing out safety defects at the product development stage and by considering the foreseeable abuse and misuse of a product as well as its intended use. Another important topic focused on the importance of recall preparedness – having a well-practiced plan in place for the inevitable situations where unsafe products are discovered after a product goes to market. Time is always of the essence in such cases, including the obligation to report to CPSC. One of the most impressive presentations of the week was by Jennifer Thompson of Costco who explained the sophistication, speed and effectiveness with which Costco implements recalls and notifies customers who have purchased recalled products.

So while we should be proud as an industry of the product safety strides we are making – through PPAI’s Product Responsibility Action Group (PRAG), through QCA, and through individual company initiatives – the ICPHSO presentations illustrate how product safety has to become part of the culture of all industry participants if we’re truly to protect our industry. For example, how many promotional products are imported without a formal risk assessment or without evaluation for product safety hazards? In some cases these tests can seem unaffordable but the risk of not testing can be even more expensive. A few years ago our product development team was considering a spa kit for our line – one that contained a variety of aloe-type skin creams and lotions. The kit would have sold for less than $10. In performing our risk assessment we asked a well-known cosmetics lab to verify that the lotions were of the quality that the Asian factory contended and that they did not contain any harmful ingredients or toxins. The lab quoted $28,000 for the tests. This may be a normal cost for a major cosmetics company but for most of our industry it isn’t a reasonable value proposition, particularly when the supplier has no idea if the product will even sell. Accordingly, we did not add the spa kit to our line. Now this week, in an unrelated case, the FDA has issued a dire warning about dangerous levels of poisonous mercury found in a variety of imported skin creams and antiseptic soaps or lotions found in at least seven states. Just imagine how this could have impacted our industry if these poisonous lotions had been purchased through a promotional products distributor and given away in a spa kit by a major corporation.

So given the practical and realistic resources of most companies in the promotional products industry what can importers do to ensure that the products we are selling are not only compliant but also truly safe? Here is a good starting list:

1) Appoint someone in your company as product safety lead. Send that person to product safety training such as a class offered by a major testing lab or the Certificate in Product Safety Management program offered by Saint Louis University. Your designee should develop and implement a risk assessment process, maintain your product safety documentation and act as the point person if your company is ever involved in a recall. Once these basic processes are in place, take the initiative to the next level. Develop a comprehensive quality manual for all of your supply chain standard operating procedures and also develop a recall preparedness plan.

2) As a supplier, manufacturer or importer, perform a basic risk assessment before adding any product to your line or before ordering it for your customer. Even without independent testing, much can be done to minimize risk and promote safety. Evaluate how well the product is constructed, the quality of materials, whether it will shatter when dropped, if it has sharp edges, choke or bite hazards as well as other foreseeable risks. Obtain a bill of materials for the product and identify any potentially hazardous materials or components. Subject the product to reasonable use and abuse testing even if you have to test it yourself and be sure to consider the foreseeable misuse of the product, particularly by children.

3) Test the product to simulate how well it performs. If it is a bag, for example, how much weight will it bear reliably before the fabric, seams or straps give way. Are there embellishments like buttons, grommets, labels, labels or hooks? If so, how securely are they fastened? If they break off will any sharp edges remain? Is there any chrome or electroplating? Is the quality high enough that it won’t peel or curl leaving knife like edges?

4) Investigate whether the product, its components or its packaging is subject to any state or Federal regulation. In addition to CPSC regulation, many promotional products are also regulated by the FDA, including hand sanitizer, first aid kits, sunglasses and food contact materials such as drinkware. If the product is regulated be sure you have current (within a year) third party tests showing that the product complies with all of the regulatory requirements of current law.

5) Consider identifying products in your line that contain toxins. BPA, lead, phthalates and cadmium have all come under scrutiny by Congress, by CPSC, and by FDA but are still allowed by law for most products. Some of your customers or your customer’s customer may have policies against purchasing products containing these substances. An alternate idea is to identify the products in your line that are lead free, phthalate free, cadmium free and BPA free and note this in your catalog, advertisements and on your web site.

6) Determine if any special labeling is required to warn against any hazards, to note any stress limits and to identify the appropriate age for the product.

This is certainly not a comprehensive list but it’s a good start and would go a long way to raising the bar for product safety in the promotional products industry. In the months ahead, PRAG will be working towards proposing a similar suite of “best practices” for product safety that all industry participants can rally around. The more that all of us do to promote product safety – compliant products and safe products – the more we do to protect our clients and our livelihood.

(To learn more about ICPHSO and its programs, visit www.ICPHSO.org)

Could Your Promotional Products Business Withstand a Recall?

February 17, 2012 ~ Rick Brenner ~ Leave a comment

Just for a moment try to imagine that a promotional product you sold to your largest customer has suddenly become the subject of a government recall. Hundreds or even thousands of consumers have to be notified immediately that it may be dangerous to use the item that was given to them as a gift. And to be sure there’s no confusion, pictures have to be posted in multiple locations and on the Internet showing the ill-fated product with your customers logo displayed next to the danger warnings. The product you chose is now a public albatross for everyone involved. The recall and legal costs are almost certainly going to be enormous, as is the liability exposure. And to top it off, the incident is a colossal embarrassment for you and for your client.

Try to imagine the pain of what that would feel like, especially if you could have avoided it all – including the potential loss of a prized customer – with just an ounce of prevention.

Recalls happen for a variety of reasons but most of them revolve around the risk of injury to consumers. Government regulations are established to ensure safe products so violation of any regulation can trigger a recall. If your promotion includes a food product that isn’t properly labeled with allergens the FDA can mandate a recall. CPSC can do the same for products that contain more lead than allowed by CPSIA or toys that fail to pass the toy safety standard.

Recalls come about in a lot of different ways. It could start with something as simple as a call from your client that someone reported an injury or that the product shattered when it fell on the floor. Sometimes a consumer advocacy group will test a product and report to CPSC that it contains excessive lead, phthalates or fails some other mandatory test.

For consumer products, the law requires immediate notification of the Consumer Products Safety Commission (CPSC) when a company obtains information that supports a conclusion that a product distributed in commerce fails to meet a product standard or contains a defect that can create a substantial risk or injury to consumers. If CPSC staff concludes that a recall is warranted, they will usually suggest a “voluntary recall” although the Commission has the right to enforce a mandatory recall. FDA has similar procedures for the products it regulates. Promotional products that fall within FDA oversight include hand sanitizer, sunglasses, first aid kits as well as food and food contact items.

As painful as a recall can be, failure to report can be even worse. Sometimes a company will find out about an injury or that a product it distributed has failed a test, and will try to handle it on its own, without involving the governmental agency, perhaps by notifying customers to return the item. CPSC is particularly unforgiving in these instances no matter how sincere or thorough a company may be in its attempt to self-resolve the issue. Public Citizen, a watchdog group, reports that between 2002 and 2007 CPSC fined companies an average of $452,000 for failure to report, filing late reports or withholding key details from the agency such as information about customer complaints. In more recent cases the agency has become even more aggressive with some fines in excess of $1 million.

So what about that ounce of prevention? What are some things you can do to prevent a product safety nightmare? The answers may seem obvious or common sense but you’d be surprised how easy they can be to overlook when you’re stressed or rushing to complete a last minute promotion.

Slow down. Take the time to understand the promotion and how the client is going to use the product. Who is the intended audience? Are children involved? How old are the children?
How well do you know the supplier and the supplier’s products? What do you know about the supplier’s processes to ensure safe and compliant products? What tests are conducted, by whom and how often?
Did you obtain an actual sample of the product? How well is it constructed? Does it have any sharp edges? Could the material shatter? Can you foresee any safety issues?
Is the product a potential choke hazard for children? If so, does it have proper warnings?
Is the product an electric product? If so, does it have an independent lab safety rating, such as by Underwriters Laboratory?
Have you researched whether there any state or Federal regulations that apply to the product or its packaging? If so, have you received current test reports from the supplier and had a qualified person confirm that the test reports are thorough and that the product meets all required standards. (PPAI has a very good tool on its website called Turbo Test which can help identify any applicable regulations.)
Does your client have any testing requirements that go beyond the state and Federal requirements? Some companies require a product to pass children’s product or toy standards even if they aren’t children’s products.

Most of us have owned a product that was involved in a recall sometime during our lives. Maybe it was a car or a coffee pot, a battery or a crib. Mistakes happen even to the most sterling and trustworthy brands. Search “product recall” on Google and your hits will include Mercedes Benz, BMW, GE, Apple Computer, and Fisher Price.

But while you can’t guarantee immunity from every problem, if you’re a savvy shopper, learn the risk factors and always do your homework, you’ll exponentially reduce the risk of a product safety fiasco.

If You Sell Promotional Products, Learn to Read a Test Report

September 30, 2011 ~ Rick Brenner ~ Leave a comment

I know, I know. Boring technical jargon. It’s all true.

But unless you have someone else in your company to take care of this for you, you can’t afford not to know how to read a test report.

There’s an easy way and a hard way. I’ll show you the easy way. The hard way is to find out that the product you thought was compliant isn’t compliant and that the official looking test report you’ve got in your file is out of date, not relevant to your specific product or doesn’t include all the tests you need.

I know. I learned the hard way.

Back in 2007, when the testing mania began and before we started ordering our own tests, we asked all of our factories to send us test reports for the products in our line. This was a year before CPSIA, before phthalate limits, before lead-in-substrate limits, and before mandatory ASTM F963. The only federal lead restriction was the 600 ppm limit for lead in paint or surface coating – the one that tripped up Mattel with their Barbie Doll recalls.

We received plenty of official looking reports and most of them from well-known testing labs. They referred to tests and codes like EN71, RoHS and 16 CFR 1303. Some included photographs, some did not. We dutifully filed them away and provided them on request to any distributor who asked – the ones doing business with corporations who have really knowledgable compliance people. And that’s when the education began – when those people saw the holes in some of the reports we provided.

“This report is dated 2005. Do you have a current one?” “The product in this report is a tumbler but it doesn’t look anything like one than we’re buying.” “EN71 is for Europe. Do you have a test report for the US standard ASTM F963?”

You get the idea. Almost none of the reports were for the actual products in our line. Most were outdated and covered mostly European standards.

Bullet point one: If the test isn’t for the exact product you’re purchasing, it doesn’t mean anything. Never mind that the factory says it’s made of the same material. If you’re purchasing Prime’s LT-3290 then the test report needs to say LT-3290. And it should have a picture so you know for sure that the test is for the same product you’re ordering.

Bullet point two: The test should be current. The date is critical because the standards have changed. It doesn’t help you to have a lead test dated April 2011 if the bag you’re buying was manufactured in September. The lead standard in April was 300 ppm. After August 14 it changed to 100 ppm.

Speaking of ppm, that’s just a way of expressing a very dilute concentration of a substance. It means one out of a million the way percent means one of a hundred. So lead of 90 ppm means 90 parts out of a million. Bullet point three: Since the number is critical, make sure the test report shows the actual number – not just PASS or FAIL. Without that number you can’t tell if the product complies with the current standards in the law. In CPSIA particularly the lead standards have been continually phased down since August 2008.

Bullet point four: Don’t assume that the test covers everything. Last year we received a passing test report for a small battery powered stuffed toy. The test passed but the battery compartment wasn’t included in the sample tested. After 5,000 pieces were produced we learned that the battery compartment didn’t comply and required several thousand dollars of rework. Expensive mistake.

Labs only perform the tests that they’re asked to perform, just as in the stuffed toy example. So if you see a report with a passing lead test, look closely to see what it is covering. CPSIA requires two different lead tests. The first is for lead in the material itself – sometimes called total lead or lead-in-substrate. (The actual wording in CPSIA is “total lead content by weight for any part of the product”). That limit is currently 100 ppm for children’s products. The second requirement is for lead in any paint or surface coating. That could either be a painted surface of the product itself or the imprint/applique that the supplier or decorator applies. Normally ink used for printed material like books and catalogs is considered part of the material. But heat transfers, pad printing and silk screening inks – particularly if they can be scraped off – are usually considered surface coating. The lead limit for paint and surface coating is 90 ppm. So you need a test for the lead in the material and a separate test for lead in any surface coating. The lead in material test is usually labeled on a test report as something like “CPSIA Lead in substrate.” The lead in surface coating test is usually labeled 16 CFR 1303 for the section number of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) containing the regulation.

Bullet point five: European standards are for Europe. US standards are for the US. They aren’t the same. If you see a passing test report for EN71 – the European toy safety standard – don’t assume that the product will pass ASTM F963 – the US toy safety standard. They’re different.

Bullet point six: If your product happens to be a toy, it needs to comply with the the Federal Toy Safety Standard usually referred to as ASTM F963. This used to be a voluntary standard but in CPSIA – the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act – Congress made it mandatory. ASTM F963 isn’t one test – it’s 67 pages of various tests for which toys need to comply. If you drop the toy from three feet will it shatter? Is it a choke hazard? Does it have sharp edges? Lots of things like that. So if your product is a toy, be sure that the report states that it is fully compliant with all applicable tests from the current ASTM F963 standard. Most labs will do that automatically but remember our battery compartment experience.

Bullet point seven: Toys (and child care items) need to be tested for six phthalates: DEHP, DBP, and BBP, DINP, DIDP, and DnOP. These are plasticizers – chemicals added to make plastic more flexible like the strand that attaches the ear buds to your iPod. The maximum limit for each of these phthalates is .1 percent. Make sure the test report lists all six and indicates that there is no more than .1 percent of each one.

These are the basics for the tests required by CPSIA. There are certainly plenty of other possible tests if your product is subject to another Federal Act, ban or regulation. And there are state regulations too. But let’s save those for a future article.

Remember these seven bullets and you’re 90% of the way there.

The Problem with Test Reports

September 23, 2011 ~ Rick Brenner ~ Leave a comment

It was one of our hottest selling bags and we were flat out-of-stock. At least a dozen backorders had already piled up by the time the container with 150,000 new pieces finally arrived at our receiving dock.

The product, a polyester backpack with a zippered pocket, came in four colors, each with a matching coated zipper pull. The arriving pieces should have gone into production as fast as the container was unloaded. Instead, I received a chilling email from my in-house testing lab:

Product failed XRF test upon receipt. Lead: 4,600 ppm in surface coating of zipper pull. Shipment quarantined.

4,600! The legal limit was 600 ppm if those bags were decorated for children. How could it be? Didn’t we have a pristine test report from a major third party lab just weeks earlier?

Yes, it was true. This shipment failed but weeks earlier we had received a current test report in which the same product from the same factory passed every test with flying colors, and from one of the most respected CPSC-certified labs in the world. What could have gone wrong?

A lot went wrong, we learned. To begin with, the sample that was sent to the testing lab was made from a different batch of material than the production pieces. That’s not unusual. As long as the product spec, bill of materials and factory doesn’t change you shouldn’t have to send every batch to be third party tested.

But that’s the point. Something obviously did change but no one knew about it. Maybe not even the factory. It’s the same thing that happened to all those Barbie Dolls® back in 2007. In this case it was the zipper pull. The production pieces were sprayed with a different coating than the sample.

So what can we learn from this incident? Does it mean you can’t rely on third party test reports?

No, the report was fine. The sample that passed the test was fine. The problem was the factory, not the testing lab.

Factories assemble products from raw materials and components that they buy from other suppliers. A bag factory will buy fabric, lining, metal, paint, grommets, thread, handles, wheel assemblies, binding, and whatever else they need from a a variety of sources. If they are required to make a product that complies with 100 ppm lead, that’s what they’ll specify to their suppliers. But how many factories are equipped as we are to scan every incoming shipment to verify that it complies with the spec? Very few, if any, in my experience. They rely on the integrity of their supply chain and sometimes that supply chain lets them down.

The problem could be with just a portion of an order. Maybe the factory runs out of a particular material and needs a little extra to complete the order. But their main supplier is out of stock, or won’t accept orders for small quantities. So the factory goes elsewhere to fill the need. Maybe the extra material complies, maybe not.

It’s why Prime and other quality suppliers who buy from dozens of factories in China and elsewhere can’t rely on a once per year third party test report. In our case, we’ve had our testing lab in-house since October 2007 – to check every incoming shipment, no matter what the previous test report says. Other quality oriented suppliers in the industry do the same, either in China or in the US.

The most important lesson is to understand that compliance is not a destination. It’s not something that you do once or periodically. It’s a journey, day in and day out. The process never stops. Whatever you did yesterday means little for the product that is produced tomorrow unless you work as hard at being vigilant tomorrow as you did yesterday.

For distributors the lesson is to know your supplier well. Understand that test reports are only one indication of a good compliance program. There are many suppliers in the industry with rock solid compliance programs that you can rely on. Visit with your suppliers whenever you can, either in person or at trade shows, ask to meet or speak with their compliance officer. Ask what kinds of checks and balances the supplier uses to guarantee consistent, safe and compliant product.

Remember: In a great compliance program third party test reports are just the tip of the iceberg.

Problem or Opportunity for Promotional Products Distributors?

September 20, 2011 ~ Rick Brenner ~ Leave a comment

At a Harvard program I enrolled in many years ago, the great Marty Marshall taught us the three most important words in the marketing lexicon: What’s going on? Starting with those simple words we learned a disciplined process to identify problems and opportunities – issues or threats in the marketplace that might enable us to gain a competitive advantage.

In our industry, concern about product safety is an important thing that is going on and a problem that could easily become your opportunity. Ever since the summer of 2007 and those massive recalls of Chinese toys containing too much lead, the world of product safety and regulatory compliance has been turned on it ear. Complicated and sometimes ambiguous laws have been passed at the state and federal level, testing labs have been swamped with new business and corporate America has been put on notice that cheap products imported from China can be risky.

No shortage of problems here: Complex new product safety regulations sometimes different from state to state, uncertainty and confusion from buyers, an industry scrambling to learn compliance and even the experts trying to wrap their heads around this juggernaut.

But as Marty Marshall taught, problems can be golden opportunities for enterprising marketers.

Corporate America needs promotional products. And because of the risks, because of these problems, they need a knowledgable and conscientious distributor to guide them, protect them, to act as a fiduciary for their most valuable asset – their good name – to ensure that it only goes on quality products that are safe and compliant and is never put on a product that might cause risk or embarrassment. In short, they need a trusted advisor. You.

We’re a commodity industry. Many of our products can be obtained from a seemingly limitless number of suppliers and distributors. But as a trusted advisor you change the paradigm. Instead of price driven sales, yours are value driven sales. Now, instead of losing business to low-bid competitors your clients often select you without bidding, because they trust you. They understand that you’re selecting appropriate products from suppliers with rock solid compliance programs and that you’ll never risk putting their name in harms way.

You don’t have to be a product safety expert but you do need to learn the basics. PPAI has a broad range of educational materials and webinars to help you get started. If you have questions, send me an email or give me a call. Within a short time you’ll learn the issues and be well on your way to becoming a trusted product safety advisor and a very savvy promotional products marketer.

Author note: Sadly, in the course of researching this article, I found that my old professor had passed away. Marty was a brilliant marketer, a motivating teacher and his legacy will live on for many years.

Marty Marshall Article: http://www.hbs.edu/news/releases/martinvmarshall.html
PPAI Product Safety page: http://www.ppai.org/inside-ppai/product-safety/