Did you realise that certifying products as asthma & allergy friendlyTM ensures that they are future proofed against some upgrades in legislation? We started testing for phthalates in toys with plastic components some years ago and toy manufacturers who certified their toys asthma & allergy friendlyTM have since enjoyed the benefits of not having to play catch up when phthalate testing became mandatory in North America in Feb 2009 (CPSIA, Section 108).
Since then, a further upgrade in toy legislation, regarding tracking labels, became mandatory in North America in August 2009 (CPSIA, Section 105). The purpose of this legislation is to ensure that all toys must contain a label that contains basic information such as source of product, date of manufacture and batch/run number. This would mean quite a lot of information on a small label! It is therefore also acceptable for the label to contain direction to where this information may be accessed by the consumer. All asthma & allergy friendlyTM Certified products are awarded a Certification code and care label on the product. This Certification Code would allow the consumer to access the information that is required by the legislation.
These upgrades in legislation represent the past and present; for the future it seems only a matter of time before allergen related claims are more tightly regulated. In much the same way as environmental-related claims such as ‘green’, ‘sustainable’ and ‘biodegradable’ are now regulated by the Federal Trade Commission (Guides for the use of environmental marketing claims, Part 260), allergen related claims are likely to come under scrutiny as unsubstantiated claims become more prevalent. These types of descriptions are not restricted to toys, any product making an allergen related claim could be affected.
The science based nature of the asthma & allergy friendlyTM Certification Program means that those manufacturers that have certified their products as asthma & allergy friendlyTM have a step up already where these claims are concerned.
