2025 ICPHSO Annual Meeting and Training Symposium

Start your morning off with a walk around the Hyatt property led by ICPHSO Member Jane McGarry.  Bring your own water bottles and prepare for the busy day ahead!

The key to successful eFiling is the centralization of data from widely distributed data sources. Product data, manufacturer data, test results, component parts, purchase orders, HTS codes, citation codes, exclusion codes… the breadth of data can feel overwhelming. Comverex will discuss how to rapidly and seamlessly implement centralization of the data required for eFiling.

Comverex will also discuss automated data uploading to the Product Registry and how to substantially simplify data uploading for lab testing service providers that are also providing this service from their own software platforms. Comverex will review “the last mile” of the eFiling roadmap - submitting Reference PGA Message Sets to Customs and Border Protection through brokers.

Retailers, national brand manufacturers, and lab testing service providers are encouraged to attend.

Open to first time attendees and new members.  Please join us for information on what to expect during the week, meet other first timers and new members and also hear about ICPHSO and the various programs we run.  This session also provides an opportunity for our supporters to self identify their commitment to supporting different stakeholder perspectives during our Symposium and beyond.  This introductory session for new members and first time conference attendees also provides ICPHSO an opportunity to introduce its robust program of inclusion and diversity to advance product safety from all stakeholder perspectives..

Join us for the opening of the 2025 Annual Symposium kicked off by President Kim Mason and Planning Chair, David Kosnoff.  We will also introduce our 2025 class of student mentees and their mentors.  The Student Mentorship  Program Committee includes Chairman Amy Lane and Vice Chairman Sara Delkoski.

Title: Making AI helpful for everyone

Summary: AI has an immense potential to benefit people and society everywhere. For AI to achieve its full potential, it is imperative to develop and use it responsibly. At Google, we are fully committed to making AI helpful for everyone, while building it responsibly. We know it must be a collective effort involving researchers, social scientists, industry experts, governments, creators, publishers, and people using AI in their daily lives. 

Transparency, collaboration, and communication are three principles underlying a good market surveillance policy. The example of how these principles have been included in the European General Product Safety Regulation (GPSR) and how they will change the approach to market surveillance and evaluation of the safety of products sold online, will show up in EU in December 2024. While waiting for this important date, we'll discuss the challenges market surveillance authorities were facing in the past, how these challenges will be mitigated by the GPSR, how providers of online marketplace will contribute to solve past challenges and how consumers will benefit from a clearer set of rules on online sales. These innovations can be taken as inspiration from other policy makers, to potentially develop an aligned approach to increasingly regulate online commerce using the same tools available for market surveillance, agreeing on the responsibilities of online marketplace’s providers and consumer rights.

From industry, to consumers, to agencies across the globe, product recalls present unique and shared challenges. Those challenges include, the decision-making process around issuing a recall, determining remedies, recall execution and ultimately announcing and ensuring consumer participating in a recall, and more. In this panel featuring representatives from retail chains, manufacturers, and regulatory agencies, attendees will hear stakeholder reflections on lessons learned from recall events and how its shaped their approaches. Panelists will engage in dialogue on common challenges and opportunities, including leveraging technology, to reduce barriers to increase recall effectiveness. There will be ample time devoted to responding to attendee questions.

Please be sure to stop by and visit the exhibitors and check out the poster displays in the exhibit hall while enjoying some food and beverage treats.

For decades, ANSI Z535 standards have provided guidance for presenting safety information in media such as safety signs, product labels, and, since 2006, product manuals and collateral materials. With evolving technology and connectivity, people - both product users and manufacturers - are increasingly turning to electronic media as another channel for finding or providing product information. ANSI Z535.7, the American National Standard for Product Safety Information in Electronic Media, helps bring ANSI Z535 concepts into these newer media. This poster provides an introduction to ANSI Z535.7 and also touches on some considerations of presenting safety information in electronic media that go beyond the standard.

The poster presentation focuses on an investigation into the evaluation of batteries for various properties that impact performance and safety. The batteries tested have been sourced from a variety of manufacturers for comparative analysis. The audience will gain knowledge in what potential pitfalls exist within lithium-ion batteries, and what is necessary to identify those, prior to implementation in a product. Data will be presented showing the wide variety in quality of batteries and how different operating conditions impact their performance and lifetime characteristics. Specific topics explored will include battery cell construction, energy capacity, degradation leading to capacity loss, and how quickly end of life is reached.

CSU, in partnership with the ASTM F15.05 subcommittee on pet products, has begun a research project to use CT scanning technology and an inflator balloon to collect anthropometric data around different points of "narrowing" in the digestive tract of different sized dogs. Additionally CSU will collect head, jaw, and mouth dimensions. Among other things, the intent is for this data to fuel to development of choking/ingestion test cylinders for dog toys, the dog equivalent of the human toy small parts cylinder.

Under the US EPA’s TSCA program for existing chemicals, providing insufficient or incomplete data about a business’s product or process can lead to erroneous risk conclusions by EPA and, ultimately, unnecessary and costly risk management measures.  Small and midsize enterprises and downstream users of a chemical are particularly vulnerable to these determinations.  To avoid this outcome, stakeholders up and down the value chain should be engaged in the TSCA process as early as possible.  A review of the types of data needed by EPA was performed to assist the regulated community with identifying and organizing their data to optimize the accuracy of EPA’s risk assessment conclusions on the relevant Conditions of Use.

Market Surveillance is one of the pillars of quality infrastructure. In order to improve its activities in this area, Inmetro, the National Institute of Metrology, Quality and Technology of Brazil, plays a crucial role in ensuring product safety and compliance with technical regulations. As part of it's strategy it was established the Safety Products Laboratory-Nusep/Divig/Dconf/Inmetro in 2023. Among its activities, it has been carrying out several testing of products that are under regulation of Inmetro’s certification. Recently the laboratory was responsible for the organization of special operations in the country, for instance, one dedicated to wires and cables (43% of manufacturers showed irregularities) and another for toys (10% of the products showed some restrictions). The results are contributing to get a better quality of products available to consumers.

Consumers embrace the concept of recycling and brand owners want to offer products that respond to such noble aspiration. But, without proper traceability mechanisms, it is hard to confidently claim the amount of recycled material used in a finished good. Incremental cost and limited availability amount of recycled polyethylene terephthalate (rPET) have led to erroneous claims about 2/3 of the time.

This poster will share how a methodology was developed and accredited to accurately identify and quantify rPET. It will share the challenges faced during development, the selection of the chemical marker and the equipment evaluated and utilized to have the most consistent and accurate measurement.

Data on the body dimensions of youth are widely used in design and regulatory applications. However, the U.S. has not had a public, well-sampled, detailed child anthropometry study since the 1970s. Importantly, less information is available on body shape. To address this gap, body size, shape, health and physical capability data were gathered on 600 children ages 3 through 17 years. Data included 1D and 3D anthropometry (head, hand, foot and whole body), body composition, and measures of strength and fitness. Study outcomes will be used to create a new public archive of anthropometry and physical development data for U.S. youth. The dataset and interactive design tools will serve as a valuable resource for the design and evaluation of products and systems children use.

Creating safer consumer products is a noble pursuit bestowing benefits to society and makes business sense because it reduces potential health risks; the risk of legal liability; the risk of product recalls and the attendant costs and reputational damage; and the risk of product failure. From a health risk perspective, potential adverse health effects are evaluated throughout the lifecycle of a product:

•From the early development stage when considering the product’s ingredients and formulation
•To the post-market stage when the product is in use by consumers.
This guidance is provided by various jurisdictions and industry groups. From a human factors or user experience perspective, one and the same iterative formative testing processes can be leveraged to:
•Decrease product risk
•Improve usability
•Enhance user experience.

The FDA’s human factors guidance provides a blueprint for a process that could be translated to the consumer product world.

Consumers and municipalities are poorly equipped to deal with the types and volume of waste that is generated when products and packaging have reached their end of life. Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) regulations/programs are one of the solutions that many countries globally are turning toward to better manage this problem.

When retailers, brands, and manufactures are assigned responsibility to fund and engage in management of these wastes, recycling can increase, while reducing resource consumption and emissions.

EPR is a timely topic, given it has become more active with EPR laws passed in 5 states recently on packaging and many others having legislative activity, while an EPR law for apparel/textile has been signed by the governor of California in the fall of 2024.

The intent of this session is to: raise awareness of this important type of regulation/program, help attendees get a better idea of how EPR may be applicable to them, provide some visibility into future regulations, and share ideas about how to start addressing these requirements.

The panel will share their knowledge, perspectives, and insights from their different position in the product life cycle, within a major retailer that must comply with many of these regulations (Canadian Tire), and skilled service provider focusing on EPR support (Accerio).

This session will give an overview of:

1. How EPR programs are generally set up / who is responsible for what actions / how funding
by obligated parties connects to the volume and type of product sales
2. Why they are beneficial and support circularity and sustainability
3. What are some of the existing EPR programs related to consumer products in the US and
Canada – an overview of this information has been compiled in a few slides to ease of
sharing, along with some additional resources
4. What is on the horizon in the U.S. and Canada? EPR for apparel?
5. Insights from the EU on EPR – can it affect North American companies?

In addition to helping attendees better understand how EPR programs work and how the landscape of regulations is changing the session will also:

6. Help them think about how to start addressing potential obligations
7. Provide insights from two companies dealing with these types of requirements from different
perspectives and how they work on compliance
8. Highlight the importance of data and provide recommendations
As part of the session, rapid polling will be conducted to gauge the attendees: familiarity with EPR,
level of existing activity in this topic, interest in EPR for specific product/packaging items, (and/or
other questions).

Each of the ICPHSO strategic committees will host one open meeting as a breakout session during the symposium, where attendees can attend and get first-hand insight and experience what the committees do and how they serve ICPHSO.  This also furthers our mission in preparation for the open call for volunteers to join the 2025 strategic committee groups that will be formed shortly after the symposium concludes. This will also present an opportunity to showcase one of our "member only" activities in the hopes of encouraging an interested non-member in joining ICPHSO to be eligible to serve on an open committee slot.

Changing consumer rights are impacting product recall implementation but are they also changing outcomes? Panellists will discuss how they are seeing approaches to recalls and consumer remedies change to meet new legislative expectations and the impact that they may or may not be seeing.

Join the Society of Product Safety Professionals (SPSP) during their annual Associated Open Meeting and Reception. All ICPHSO registered attendees are welcome to attend the open meeting and enjoy the reception courtesy of SPSP.