CSA Group, a leading North American standards development organization and testing and certification services provider, is helping to provide for a better, safer global marketplace for consumers with the introduction of two new standards announced by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). ISO 10377:2013, Consumer Product Safety – Guidelines for Suppliers and ISO 10393:2013, Consumer Product Recall – Guidelines for Suppliers are designed to help ensure the safety of consumer products across multiple jurisdictions and that recalls are effectively managed.
The supply chain for consumer products is complex and often made up of a number of suppliers, with products or components designed, produced and sold in a number of different countries. International jurisdictions may have established laws and requirements to help ensure the safety of consumer products but many suppliers have limited experience, resources or practical reference documents to guide them through the safety process. Therefore, it is important that guidance is available that is aligned with international best practice, easy to understand and applied consistently by suppliers, such as: identifying hazards, assessing risks, implementing risk reduction measures, tracing and identifying products, communicating use and warning information to consumers, and monitoring the product in the marketplace.
The new ISO 10377:2013, Consumer Product Safety – Guidelines for Suppliersstandard provides universally applicable guidance and practical tools to identify, assess and reduce hazards, manage risks by reducing them to tolerable levels, and provide consumers with hazard warnings or instructions essential to the safe use or disposal of consumer products. The overall objective of it is to produce safer consumer products, thereby: reducing the product safety risks to consumers; the risks to suppliers of product recalls; providing consumers with the information they need in order to make informed choices.
“CSA Group worked closely with stakeholders around the world to develop this International Standard on behalf of ISO to provide practical guidance for suppliers of all sizes to assist them in assessing and managing the safety of the consumer products they supply,” says Bonnie Rose, President, Standards, CSA Group. “This ISO standard will be particularly valuable to small and medium-sized organizations and suppliers responsible for the safety of their products across many international jurisdictions.”
On behalf of the Standards Council of Canada (SCC), CSA Group represents Canada on various ISO committees. ISO is a worldwide federation of national standards bodies representing approximately 160 countries that works with member countries to develop standards that will help improve design, performance, safety, and other considerations. In 2006, ISO established the project committee for the Consumer Product Safety standard naming CSA Group, on behalf of SCC, as International Secretariat.
“This ISO Consumer Product Safety standard benefits industry when it is used, by providing the assurance that product safety concerns were included in the processes both up and down the supply chain,” says Andy Dabydeen, Product Stewardship, Strategy & Governance, Canadian Tire Corporation, Ltd. and Chair of the Canadian ISO mirror committee. “For SME suppliers and retailers, this standard is an invaluable set of best practices that, when employed, allows for consumers to have safe products – and minimizes costs for industry to deal with unsafe products. Canadians would directly benefit from this standard, as the products we use everyday come from multiple countries around the world, and when used, this standard makes those products safer.”
Similar to the new standard for product safety, a new international standard has also been introduced to assist manufacturers and suppliers recall unsafe products if a safety issue is identified in marketplace. In such instances, it is critical that corrective actions, including recalls, are carried out quickly and effectively.ISO 10393:2013, Consumer product recall – Guidelines for suppliers, has been developed in parallel with ISO 10377 and provides guidance on how to establish, implement and manage a consumer product recall programme. The ISO 10393 recall standard provides practical guidance on consumer product recalls and other corrective actions after the product has left the manufacturing facility. Other corrective actions include, but are not limited to, refunds, retrofit, repair, replacement, disposal and public notification. Broad application of this International Standard will lead to a more consistent approach to removing unsafe products from the global marketplace, to improving coordination between government and consumer products organizations in different countries, and to increasing consumer confidence in the safety of products available on the market.
Health Canada was the leading sponsor in supporting Canada as the International Secretariat and funded the work of both the Chair and the Secretary from CSA Group. Other countries that have contributed to the international guidance document include the U.S., Chile, China, Malaysia, Japan, Australia, and Russia. The guidance document does not cover food, drugs, medical devices or automobiles.

About CSA Group

CSA Group is an independent, not-for-profit member-based association dedicated to advancing safety, sustainability and social good. We are an internationally-accredited standards development and testing & certification organization. We also provide consumer product evaluation and education & training services. Our broad range of knowledge and expertise includes: industrial equipment, plumbing & construction, electro-medical & healthcare, appliances & gas, alternative energy, lighting and sustainability. The CSA mark appears on billions of products around the world.

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Anthony Toderian
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CSA Group
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