The Poison Prevention Packaging Act mandates that a number of household commodities are packaged in child-resistant packaging. This law was created to safeguard children under the age of five from death or poisoning that may occur when they access the contents of harmful products.
Child-Resistant Packaging Requirements
A child-resistant package is purposefully designed to restrict children below the age of five from opening and accessing hazardous package contents in a reasonable length of time. However, for typical adults, the package should not be complicated to open and use.
According to the procedure, summary highlighted below, for a package to be considered child-proof, at least 80% of the kids tested should not open the package within ten minutes of the testing period.
In an adult test conducted, 90% proved that they could open the child-resistant package correctly within 5 minutes. During the second test, the adults showcased their ability to open and seal the package in one minute.
The precept that constitutes child-resistant packaging regulations and the items that necessitate such packaging are contained in Title 16, Part 1700 of the Federal Code of Regulation. Given that, from time to time, the Commission may introduce new regulations, it is recommended that you regularly check for new or updated guidelines on their website.
Examples of Products that Require Child-resistant Packaging
The PPPA authorizes the Commission to create rules regarding child-resistant packaging for specific categories of products commonly used in and around homes.
This is if the Commission considers the following:
- That the products pose a significant threat of severe illness or injury to children under the age of 5 who are in a position to open, handle the packages, and consume the content.
- Suppose there exists a technology, or a means that may be created to produce child-resistant packaging for this kind of product. In this regard, the packaging can be utilized in modern mass manufacturing and assembly procedures, which will effectively maintain integrity and not impair the intended storage or usage of the product.
Some of these products include mouthwash products, dietary supplements, chemical and cosmetic products, pharmaceutical products, and liquid nicotine.
How Can a package be Tested to ensure it is Child-Resistant?
It is essential to carefully examine the test protocol before conducting the test to ensure that all the testing requirements have been met.
If you opt not to conduct the package test yourself, consider finding a certified child-testing laboratory to do so.
To carry out legitimate child-proof packaging testing, at least one and four test panels of 50 children aged 42 to 51 months. Each panel will be grouped into three categories. The first 30% of the children will be between the ages of 42 and 44 months. 40% of the total sample will be between the ages of 45 and 48 months, and 30% will be between the ages of 49 and 51 months. Boys must account for around half of the youngsters in each group. The number of boys and girls in each group is allowed to vary by 10% in the test method.
More importantly, any child participating in the test must be free of any disease, injury, or impairment which would compromise their ability to test the package successfully. Besides, a child should not be allowed to test two packages not unless the packages have different designs. This is to prevent the child from mastering how to open the package.
The testing process should be conducted in a well-lit and distraction-free room. Then the examiner should hand each kid an unused child-resistant package and instruct them to open it. Every child has up to 5 minutes to try opening the package. If a child successfully opens the package, the child is not further tested, and the test is considered to have failed to be child-resistant.
For a package to qualify as child-resistant, at least 85% of the children in the test mustn’t be able to open it before receiving a demo of how it works. If five or fewer children open the box during the first 50-child test panel, the product passes. The package will fail if 15 or more youngsters open it. No additional testing is required in either scenario.
If six to fourteen children can open the box in the first panel, a second test panel of 50 youngsters is required. The package may pass, fail, or require more testing based on the results of that test.
If you are in the cannabis industry, you can forego all this trouble by ordering custom cannabis bags with child-resistant zippers from your certified packaging provider.