US CPSC Proposes to Exempt Certain Fibers from Testing

On October 9, 2019, the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission (US CPSC) published a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPR) in the Federal Register (84 FR 54055) to determine that several unfinished manufactured fibers would not exceed the regulatory limits for ASTM F963 soluble elements or phthalates in toys and child care articles. Based on these proposed determinations, the specified unfinished manufactured fibers would not be required to have third party testing for compliance with the requirements of the ASTM F963 elements or phthalates for children's toys and child care articles.

The CPSC is accepting comments about this NPR until December 23, 2019 and must respond to comments before a final rule is made. The provisions will take effect 30 days after publication of the final rule.

* An unfinished manufactured fiber is one that has no chemical additives beyond those required to manufacture the fiber. For unfinished manufactured fibers as defined in this rule, the unfinished manufactured fiber is free of any chemical additives added to impart color or some desirable performance property, such as flame retardancy.