October 1, 2009

E-Mail This Article Printer-Friendly Version

By Bruce J. Farquhar

Consumer product safety regulators and stakeholders from around the globe gathered in Stockholm, Sweden recently to discuss product traceability and tracking labels.  The conference organized by the International Consumer Product Safety Caucus, the ICPSC, attracted over seventy delegates from twenty countries.

The opinions expressed in this piece are the author’s and do not necessarily represent those of Product Safety Forum. Product Safety Forum is a free service of Product Safety Letter. Its mission is twofold: to promote frank and open airing of product safety issues and to provide advice and guidance from top experts in the field. Do you have an idea or article you think would make a great piece for Product Safety Forum, including commentary or reaction to this one? Then email Publisher Sean Oberle to discuss it.. To read more stories, see the archives

The delegates heard about the latest policy and legislative developments from the regulators. Stakeholders had an opportunity to present their concerns and the conference heard from a number of solution providers and from initiatives in different product sectors. The exchange of cutting edge information should help ensure the spread of best practice around the globe and across different sectors. This in turn should help facilitate the implementation of systems for the traceability for consumer products that are effective and efficent in a global market.

The presentations from the conference, a summary prepared by Health Canada and the delegate list are all available from our website. 

The Stockholm Conference marks another stepping stone in the ICPSC's progress towards a major Workshop on Recall Effectiveness and information exchange to be held in Washington DC on Monday the 15th of February next year.  The workshop is being organized in conjunction with the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, the OECD, and is being held in conjunction with the Annual meeting of ICPHSO, the International Consumer Product Health and Safety Organization. More details will be posted in due course to the ICPSC web site and to the ICPHSO website.

In the meantime interested stakeholders can also contribute to the Australian Government's Recall Review, the results of which will help form the basis of some of the programme of the Workshop. Please see icpsc.org/Recall_Effectiveness.html"

Bruce Farquhar is a consultant who specializes in consumer safety, regulation and standardization, consumer representation, conformity assessment and similar areas. He currently provides support to the European organisation PROSAFE and their market surveillance joint actions, most notably EMARS II, to the International Consumer Product Safety Caucus (ICPSC) and to ICPHSO. Contact him (Quebec, Canada) at (450) 538-0599, bruce@brucejfarquhar.net.