Toy Association Staff Speak at ICPHSO Annual Symposium
March 5, 2019 | Toy Association staff members lent their expertise on toy safety at the International Consumer Product Health and Safety Organization’s (ICPHSO) 26th annual symposium and conference in Washington, D.C. last week. Attended by a record 825+ professionals from government, industry, consumer organizations, and service providers, the symposium offered participants a structured program and networking opportunities.
Day one of the conference offered tours of the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) laboratories in Rockville, MD, as well as a variety of tutorials on compliance, Health Canada reporting requirements, state chemical reporting, and social media. The Association’s Alan Kaufman, senior vice president of technical affairs, spoke at a meeting of the Consumer Products Committee of the Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA) and moderated a panel on state chemical reporting.
The second day included sessions on e-commerce and counterfeits, global regulatory cooperation, and a keynote by Washington consumer reporter Susan Hogan. On that day, the Association’s Jennifer Gibbons, vice president of state government affairs, participated on a panel discussing hot topics in state legislation, with an emphasis on California’s Proposition 65.
Day three covered CPSC-related topics, with participation from CPSC Acting Chairman Ann Marie Buerkle and commissioners discussing programs covering proactive safety engineering, ingestion injuries, recall effectiveness, and more. The Toy Association’s Joan Lawrence, senior vice president of standards and regulatory affairs, spoke on a panel discussing the challenges – and small successes thus far – in pursuing the alignment of international standards.
The final day of the symposium featured sessions on interagency IoT privacy and security cooperation and fast-moving technologies, led by representatives from the CPSC, the Federal Trade Commission and Department of Transportation.
“The Toy Association was one of the original founding supporters of ICPHSO and continues to sponsor the organization’s symposia each year,” said Lawrence. “Our staff’s participation in the gathering is a crucial component of our efforts to spread awareness about the industry’s long-standing commitment to toy safety, and offers us a chance to collaborate with likeminded professionals on issues that will ultimately make products even safer for children worldwide.”
ICPHSO’s 2020 annual meeting and training symposium will take place February 18 to 22, 2020 in Orlando, FL.