The Baby Safety Alliance is the voice of the industry on safety and quality for baby and children's products. A key way we do this is by advocating for safety through product verification programs and legislative and regulatory involvement.

Representing 95 percent of the prenatal to preschool products sold in North America, The Baby Safety Alliance advocacy efforts range from keeping members informed on tariffs impacting the industry to providing insight, influence and commentary at the federal, state and local levels.

Regulations

The Baby Safety Alliance tracks and advocates on federal and state-level legislation and policy that has the potential to impact the baby products industry. The Baby Safety Alliance works with both the legislative and executive branches of the United States government. The legislative branch includes Congress, which is comprised of the House of Representative and the Senate, while the Executive branch is the Administration, comprised of the White House and its federal departments and agencies. The Baby Safety Alliance’s engagement with all corners of government is to promote the growth of the baby products industry, implement common-sense regulations and mitigate cost and over-burdensome regulation to baby products manufacturers.

Throughout the year, The Baby Safety Alliance weighs in on all proposed regulations and new policies at the federal and state levels. Comments are requested as part of the legislative and regulatory process to ensure all available information submitted by interested parties is given careful consideration before the implementation of new laws or changes to existing ones. By being actively engaged with these issues, our industry is better able to advocate for fair and consistent implementation of laws. The Baby Safety Alliance strives for regulations that ensure safety and do not hinder our industry’s ability to bring products to market.

Federal Regulators & Legislation

Consumer Product Safety Commission

The Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) was passed to establish consumer product safety standards and other safety requirements for children’s products, as well as to modernize the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). This landmark consumer product safety law provided CPSC with significant new regulatory authority and enforcement tools including the amending and enhancement of the Consumer Product Safety Act (CPSA). The CPSIA includes provisions addressing, among other things, lead, phthalates, toy safety, durable infant or toddler products, third-party testing and certification, tracking labels, imports, ATVs, civil and criminal penalties and SaferProducts.gov.

The CRS Report: Consumer Product Safety Commission: CPSIA Implementation was created for members and committees in Congress to understand the requirements and regulations passed in the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) of 2008. This report is an overview and highlights the main priorities and changes to authorities governed by the Consumer Product Safety Commission for the regulated community.

H.R. 2715 amended the CPSIA in 2011 to address lead content limits and exceptions from these limits, third-party testing and certification and issues related to small batch manufacturers.

CPSC Resources

The Regulated Products Handbook was developed to assist manufacturers, importers, retailers and others in understanding their responsibilities and the steps to take when the CPSC staff informs them, or they become aware of, a violation of CPSC statutes and regulations.

The underlying premise of The Handbook is that safety must be designed and built into consumer products in the United States. The Handbook identifies the elements of a comprehensive system approach to manufacturing safe products.

The Small Business Ombudsman provides guidance to small businesses to ensure consumer products are in compliance with the applicable federal consumer product safety laws.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) Office of Compliance and Field Operations staff prepared the Recall Handbook to help companies understand the obligations and responsibilities under the Consumer Product Safety Act. It applies to companies that manufacture, import, distribute, or retail consumer products.

Federal Hazardous Substances Act

The Federal Hazardous Substances Act (FHSA) requires precautionary labeling of hazardous household products to help consumers safely store and use those products and provide information about immediate first aid steps to take if an accident occurs. The Act also allows the Consumer Product Safety Commission to ban certain products that are so dangerous or the nature of the hazard is such that labeling is not adequate to protect consumers.

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is an agency within the Department of Transportation that has jurisdiction over products manufactured for the transportation of children in vehicles and other aftermarket vehicle devices. NHTSA has the authority of writing and enforcing standards and regulations as applied to Child Restraint Systems (CRS).