This third installment in our series highlights the focus on children’s product safety at the 2025 International Consumer Product Health and Safety Organization (ICPHSO) symposium. This year’s symposium featured a range of panels dedicated to the safety of children's products, including Reese’s Law, corded blinds, and microwave safety.
Reese’s Law. Since Reese’s Law went into effect, ICPHSO has featured discussions on the law’s objectives and requirements. Named for an 18-month-old child who died after swallowing a coin cell battery, Reese’s Law imposes packaging, labeling, and performance requirements for button cell and coin batteries, and for consumer products containing these batteries. Reese’s Law aims to protect children six years old and younger from the hazards associated with ingesting button cell and coin cell batteries.
This year, Trista Hamsmith, Reese’s mother and the founder of Reese’s Purpose, spoke about product safety from an advocacy perspective. A moving speaker, Hamsmith was joined by industry leaders including Tim Hamilton, Merchandise Vice President at Lowe’s, and Kevin Rejent, Associate General Counsel at Energizer. Alongside other panelists from the consumer products industry, Hamsmith discussed the important role her collaboration with manufacturers played in the lead-up to and implementation of Reese’s Law.
Corded Blinds. In addition to battery safety, ICPHSO also featured speakers from Parents for Window Blind Safety (PFWBS), who discussed their mission to eliminate the risks that corded window blinds pose to children. According to PFWBS, the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) has identified window coverings with cords as one of the top hidden hazards in the home, including window blinds, Roman shades, cellular shades, roll-up shades, and draperies. Since its founding in 2002, PFWBS has convinced several major retailers to stop selling corded blinds, pushed for stronger warning labels, and advocated for mandatory safety standards. PFWBS is actively working with CPSC to address these dangers and improve safety standards.
Microwave Safety. Finally, panelists at ICPHSO highlighted how research can inform and support child injury prevention advocacy. Doctors at Rush University Medical Center observed numerous cases of severe burns on children visiting the emergency department. In 2008, the researchers published a study analyzing three years of burn unit data and finding that a significant percentage of burns resulted when young children opened a microwave and spilled the microwave’s heated contents. In that report, the youngest child burned was 18 months old, and nearly half of the cases required skin grafts.
Following the study, the researchers worked with microwave manufacturers for more than a year to create safety standards that would make microwaves safer for children, while also addressing industry concerns that changes would make it harder for the elderly to use microwaves. The collaboration ultimately resulted in a standards change mandating that consumers perform “two distinct actions” to open the microwave door. This standard applies to all new microwaves manufactured in 2023 and later. According to the researchers, “Children will now be protected from this type of scald as microwaves with child-resistant doors replace current models.”
Collectively, these initiatives reflect a concerted industry effort to enhance the safety of childrens’ products and the benefits of collaboration between industry groups and advocates. As new rules emerge and the regulatory landscape shifts, manufacturers should take care to ensure that their products are compliant with existing laws and standards, and consider partnerships with other organizations to promote product safety.