|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Legislation for Children's Products Entering the US Market
On August 14, 2008, the “Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008” (CPSIA) was signed into United States law by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). The legislation is a comprehensive overhaul of consumer product safety rules, with significant impact on nearly all children’s products entering the US market.
In addition to more stringent criteria and new requirements for children’s products, CPSIA mandates that children’s products be tested by CPSC-recognized laboratories. To date, CPSC recognition requires laboratories to have ISO/IEC 17025 accreditation for the specific tests, with the accreditation from an accreditation body who is a signatory to the ILAC Mutual Recognition Arrangement (MRA). Whether it be lead in toys or safety of cribs, the purpose of this law is to enhance the safety of children’s products. For a comprehensive list and schedule of items and updates, please visit http://www.cpsc.gov/ABOUT/Cpsia/cpsia.HTML.
For the list of published CPSC Test Manuals, please visit http://www.cpsc.gov/businfo/corrective.html
The CPSC continues to issue guidance documents, policy statements, test methods, and Federal Register notices as implementation of CPSIA continues. Detailed information can be found on the CPSC website, www.cpsc.gov.
Weblink
The ILAC Marketing Committee has developed a weblink that can be used to link the ILAC website from the websites of accreditation bodies, accredited laboratories, liaison partners and other interested organisations.
Calibration and Measurement Capabilities (CMC). The following resolution was adopted by the ILAC General Assembly in Sydney, Australia on 30 October 2007:
ILAC will take this joint paper into account when preparing future documents on measurement uncertainty, in collaboration with the BIPM.
The joint paper CMC provides very important information for future work between ILAC and BIPM.
The ILAC 2009-08-20 BMC to CMC Circular provides details on the change from references to BMC to read CMC by accredited calibration laboratories and in the scopes of accreditation for those laboratories.
Joint ISO-ILAC-IAF Communique and Covering Letter
The Joint ISO-ILAC-IAF Communique on the Management Systems Requirements of ISO/IEC 17025:2005, General Requirements for the competence of testing and calibration laboratories, was originally signed on 18 June 2005. The Communique was revised in January 2009 to refer to ISO 9001:2008 rather than ISO 9001:2000. It was produced to relieve the confusion caused by the perception that accredited laboratories do not operate a recognised quality management system. The Communique should be read in conjunction with the covering letter dated 8 January 2009.
Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) Certification Forum
The CDMA Certification Forum, or CCF, is a partnership between CDMA mobile phone operators and CDMA terminal vendors. "The CCF process requires the testing laboratories that test the CDMA mobile phone devices be ISO/IEC 17025 accredited by an Accreditation Body (AB) that is a signatory to the ILAC MRA".