U.S. – CPSC Proposed Rule for Magnet Safety Standard – 16 CFR 1262

Vol. 1285 | 21 Jan 2022

The Consumer Products Safety Commission (CPSC) has published a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPR) for magnet safety standard – 16 CFR 1262, due to the unreasonable risk of injury and death associated with children and teens ingesting high-powered magnets.

Inputs gathered from magnet ingestion trends include the following: hazardous use patterns, CPSC recall activity, international standards/prohibitions, ASTM activity, human factors, medical literature and associations, and consumer advocacy groups form the backbone of research for the proposed rule.

The proposed rule will apply to consumer products that are designed, marketed, or intended to be used for: entertainment, jewelry (including children’s jewelry), mental stimulation, stress relief, or a combination of these purposes, containing one or more loose or separable magnets. Toys are exempt from this rule, as toys containing magnets must meet such requirements as part of the Federal toy safety standard, 16 CFR 1250 (ASTM F963-17).

Loose or separate magnets in the products described above must comply with either of the following requirements:

1. Each magnet must be too large to fit entirely within the small parts cylinder as described in 16 CFR 1501.4, or
2. Each magnet must have a flux index that is less than 50 kG²mm², as measured by the procedures for determining the magnetic attraction force as described in ASTM F963.

The Commission proposes that this rule becomes effective 30 days after publication of the final rule in the Federal Register.

Public comment deadline for the proposed rule is March 28, 2022.

The proposed rule can be reviewed at: https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2022-01-10/pdf/2021-27826.pdf.

For questions, please contact Harini Ramaswamy (harini.ramaswamy@intertek.com, +1 847 871 1047,) Matthew Nudell (matthew.nudell@intertek.com, +1 716-225-9006) or Dr. Pratik Ichhaporia (pratik.ichhaporia@intertek.com, +1 847 212 8273).