Product safety chief: Keep kids' products safe or else

WASHINGTON -- One of the nation's top safety officials is putting manufacturers on notice: Comply with new rules aimed at keeping children's products safe, or face the potential of big fines.

Consumer Product Safety Commission Chairman Inez Tenenbaum said Tuesday that her agency will get new enforcement tools next month — and she plans to use them in order to protect consumers, especially children.

Come Aug. 14, the maximum civil penalty the agency could impose for violations increases significantly, from $1.8 million to $15 million.

"Those, if the circumstances warrant it and the facts support it, will be used by the CPSC to make sure that people comply with that law," Tenenbaum said.

The new law, called the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act or CPSIA, is intended to keep lead away from children by banning the metal, except in small amounts, from products for kids 12 years and under. Lead can cause irreversible brain damage.

"I plan to enforce the CPSIA," said Tenenbaum, adding that "we will follow the statute."

The law has been met with criticism and confusion from small businesses, charities and others who have complained about expensive testing requirements and vague and sometimes mixed guidance from the agency on whether they can sell certain items.

Tenenbaum said the commission plans to offer common-sense guidance to businesses on how the law applies to kids' products.

The commission voted late Monday on guidance for industry regarding the tracking labels they will be required to put on children's products beginning Aug. 14.

Manufacturers will now be required to have a label, usually somewhere on the product, that provides the name of the company as well as city and country where it was manufactured. It would also have other identifiers, such as batch and lot numbers, Tenenbaum said.

Aug. 14 also ushers in a new limit for the amount of lead allowed in children's toys and other products. The limit will be 300 parts per million — half of what is currently allowed.