CPSC EXPLAINS WHO AND WHAT ARE COVERED BY CERTIFICATION Exemptions from CPSC rules may or may not exempt products from the general certification requirements in the new Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act.

PRINTED TOY ADS MAY GET GRACE PERIOD FOR WARNINGS Catalogs and other printed advertising material should have a 180-day grace period from February 10 to comply with the upcoming rule to require warnings in such material, CPSC staff is urging.

CPSC WARNS OF BUCKET-DROWNING RISK CPSC September 30 reminded consumers that it knows of 94 bucket-related drownings from 1999 to 2006 involving children, all but one under age 2.

GET RID OF POOL HAZARD, VERSUS REDUCING IT, CPSC URGES Eliminating drain entrapment hazards, rather than mitigating them, is CPSC staff’s message in a September 30 guide to complying with the Virginia Graeme Baker Pool & Spa Safety Act.

FREE PRESS EQUALS SAFE PRODUCTS, STATE DEPT HEARS The safety of Chinese products could depend on that nation’s progress on civil liberties as much as its progress on regulatory matters, the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs Advisory Committee on International Economic Policy heard September 29 in Washington, D.C.

CPSC BRIEFS Briefs on toy boats, chests, toasters, lawn mower jacks, snowmobiles, hammocks, ATVs, boilers, Sears, tip-overs, CPSC meetings.