Short title

This Act may be cited as the

Child Product Safety Notification Act

Findings

Congress finds the following: (1)Unintentional injuries are the leading cause of death among children, and for every such injury that is fatal, approximately 18 children are hospitalized and 1,250 are treated by emergency departments for such injuries that are nonfatal. (2)According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, an average of 50 children under the age of 5 die each year in incidents associated with nursery products, and about 16 of these deaths each year are associated with cribs. (3)In 2003, an estimated 60,700 children under the age of 5 were treated in United States hospital emergency rooms for injuries associated with nursery products, and there were 10,700 injuries to children under the age of 5 years associated with strollers alone. (4)Of the 397 recalls issued by the Consumer Product Safety Commission in fiscal year 2005, 109 (or 28 percent) were children’s products. Children’s products were recalled, on average, over 2 times per week, and accounted for 19,635,627 individual units.

Definitions

In this Act: (1)

Commission

The term Commission means the Consumer Product Safety Commission. (2)

Durable infant or toddler product

The term durable infant or toddler product— (A)means a durable product intended for use, or that may be reasonably expected to be used, by children under the age of 5 years; and (B)includes— (i)full-size cribs and nonfull-size cribs; (ii)toddler beds; (iii)high chairs, booster chairs, and hook-on chairs; (iv)bath seats; (v)gates and other enclosures for confining a child; (vi)play yards; (vii)stationary activity centers; (viii)child carriers; (ix)strollers; (x)walkers; (xi)swings; (xii)bassinets and cradles; and (xiii)children’s folding chairs.

Consumer product registration forms

(a)

Rulemaking

Not later than 270 days after the date of enactment of this Act, the Commission shall, pursuant to its authority under section 16(b) of the Consumer Product Safety Act (15 U.S.C. 2065(b)), promulgate a final consumer product safety standard under section 7 of such Act (15 U.S.C. 2056) to require manufacturers of durable infant or toddler products— (1)to provide consumers with a postage-paid consumer registration form with each such product; (2)to maintain a record of the names, addresses, email addresses, and other contact information of consumers who register their ownership of such products with the manufacturer in order to improve the effectiveness of manufacturer campaigns to recall such products; and (3)to permanently place the manufacturer name and contact information, model name and number, and the date of manufacture on each durable infant or toddler product. (b)

Requirements for registration form

The registration form required to be provided to consumers under subsection (a) shall— (1)include spaces for a consumer to provide their name, address, telephone number, and email address; (2)include space sufficiently large to permit easy, legible recording of all desired information; (3)be attached to the surface of each durable infant or toddler product so that, as a practical matter, the consumer must notice and handle the form after purchasing the product; (4)include the manufacturer’s name, model name and number for the product, and the date of manufacture; (5)include a message explaining the purpose of the registration and designed to encourage consumers to complete the registration; (6)include an option for consumers to register through the Internet; and (7)a statement that information provided by the consumer shall not be used for any purpose other than to facilitate a recall of or safety alert regarding that product.

In issuing regulations under this section, the Commission may prescribe the exact text and format of the required registration form.

(c)

Record keeping and notification requirements

The standard required under this section shall require each manufacturer of a durable infant or toddler product to maintain a record of registrants for each product manufactured that includes all of the information provided by each consumer registered, and to use such information to notify such consumers in the event of a voluntary or involuntary recall of or safety alert regarding such product. Each manufacturer shall maintain such a record for a period of not less than 6 years after the date of manufacture of the product. Consumer information collected by a manufacturer under this Act may not be used by the manufacturer, nor disseminated by such manufacturer to any other party, for any purpose other than notification to such consumer in the event of a product recall or safety alert. (d)

Study

The Commission shall conduct a study at such time as it considers appropriate on the effectiveness of the consumer registration forms in facilitating product recalls. Upon the conclusion of such study, the Commission shall report its findings to Congress.