CPSC Likely To Proceed With October Hearing On Magnet Rule

This week, the Consumer Product Safety Commission ("CPSC") will decide whether to hold a full Commission hearing to receive oral comments on a notice of proposed rulemaking on magnet set safety. If the meeting notice is approved as drafted, the hearing will take place at 10 AM EST on October 22, 2013 and will provide stakeholders the opportunity to present additional comments to the CPSC on the proposed magnet set standard prior to agency staff finalizing the rule. In August 2012, the CPSC voted to begin a rulemaking process to address safety risks posed by certain high powered magnet sets. The CPSC published a notice of proposed rulemaking on September 4, 2012.

Many agency stakeholders were expecting this rule to be finalized prior to the end of this fiscal year (September 30, 2013) based on the dates listed in the agency's recent Spring Regulatory Agenda and projections listed in its 2013 Operating Plan. However, this meeting notice indicates that likely will not be the case. Interestingly, the week of October 22 will be Commissioner Nord's last week at the Commission before the expiration of her holdover year and the last week before Chairman Tenenbaum's natural term expires and holdover year begins—meaning that Commissioner Adler may be the only Commissioner remaining that voted on the proposed rule when the final rule is eventually presented to the Commission.

The safety of magnet sets, defined as "any aggregation of separable, permanent, magnetic objects that is a consumer product intended or marketed by the manufacturer primarily as a manipulative or construction desk toy for general entertainment," has become a focal point and hot topic over the past year for the CPSC, product safety advocates, and interested industry stakeholders. Under the proposed rule, if a magnet that is part of a magnet set fits within the CPSC's small parts cylinder, the magnet would be required to have a flux index of 50 or less, or the magnet would...

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