The Consumer Product Safety Commission has posted a draft version of a final rule it voted on in a February 7, 2012 meeting that will amend a 2009 rule requiring manufacturers of durable infant or toddler products to establish a consumer registration program. The rule also required such manufacturers to provide each product with a postage-paid consumer registration form; keep records of consumers who register products; and permanently place the manufacturer's name and contact information, model name and number, and the date of manufacture on each product. CPSC's final rule will clarify that although such manufacturers must comply with the registration requirements, they are not required to have a third-party testing laboratory test their products compliance with the registration requirements.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission has posted a draft of its final rule on a safety standard for portable bed rails that will be published in the Federal Register. CPSC has concluded that more stringent requirements would further reduce the risk of injury associated with portable bed rails. Thus, the final rule will establish a mandatory consumer product safety standard for toddler beds that adopts the voluntary ASTM F1821-09 standard, but with certain modifications to strengthen the standard. CPSC has also posted a staff summary of the final rule and comments the Commission received in response to its proposed rule. Draft final rule is available here. Staff summary is available here. Comments are available here.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission will hold an open meeting on February 15, 2012 to vote on whether the agency should adopt ASTM F963-11 as the new mandatory standard for toys, replacing the 2008 ASTM F963-08 standard. According to the ASTM, changes made to the standard from the 2008 version include revisions to the section on heavy metals (e.g. cadmium), the introduction of compositing procedures, and new safety requirements and technical guidance for bath toy projections, acoustics and other potential safety hazards in toys. CPSC is also scheduled to discuss its fiscal year 2012 Operating Plan at this meeting.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission published notice of the following voluntary recalls for February 7, 2012:

The Consumer Product Safety Commission published notice of the following additional voluntary recalls for February 3, 2012:

The Consumer Product Safety Commission published notice of the following voluntary recalls for February 3, 2012:

The Consumer Product Safety Commission published notice of the following voluntary recalls for February 1-2, 2012:

Commissioner Nord of the Consumer Product Safety Commission has commented on the Regulatory Accountability Act, which was passed in the House on December 2, 2011 and would require agencies to take the costs and benefits for new regulations more seriously before finalizing them. She states this is something that the CPSC has not done with rules issued under the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) because the Act specifically gave the agency the opportunity to opt out of doing cost-benefit analyses. Nord states is unfortunate that the CPSC did not think about minimizing regulatory cost, as the agency busily churned out regulations over the past several years, and that maybe this will now change.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission published notice of the following voluntary recalls for February 1, 2012:

The Consumer Product Safety Commission will hold an open meeting on February 8, 2012 on its bed rails rulemaking. CPSC issued a final rule establishing a mandatory consumer product safety standard for toddler beds that adopts the voluntary ASTM F1821-09 standard, but with certain modifications to strengthen the standard. CPSC had also issued a notice of requirements that provides the criteria and process for CPSC acceptance of accreditation of third party labs to test for compliance with the new toddler bed standard. A live webcast of the meeting can be viewed here.