§1472 Special Packaging Standards

Summary

The Commission can make rules that require special, child-resistant packaging for household products when two things are true: the product’s packaging makes it likely that children could get seriously sick or hurt from handling, using, or swallowing it, and child-resistant packaging is technically possible, practical, and suitable for that product. In making a rule, the Commission must think about whether the rule is reasonable, the scientific and medical evidence about children’s accidental ingestions and injuries, how affected industries make products, and how the product is used. The Commission must publish what it found, why, and which laws let it act. It cannot order exact package designs, change product contents, set package sizes, or require labeling (except as allowed in section 1473(a)(2)), but it can ban packages that are needlessly attractive to children. The Commission does not have to do a formal cost-versus-benefit study before setting a rule.