Poison Prevention Packaging Act of 1970
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| Long title | An Act to amend the Federal Hazardous Substances Act to provide for child resistant packaging to protect children from serious personal injury or serious illness resulting from handling, using, or ingesting a hazardous substance, and for other purposes. |
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| Nicknames | Federal Hazardous Substances Act Amendment of 1970 |
| Enacted by | the 91st United States Congress |
| Effective | December 30, 1970 |
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| Public law | 91-601 |
| Statutes at Large | 84 Stat. 1670 |
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| Titles amended | |
| U.S.C. sections created | 15 U.S.C. ch. 39a § 1471 et seq. |
| U.S.C. sections amended |
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| Legislative history | |
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The Poison Prevention Packaging Act of 1970 (PPPA; (Pub. L. 91-601, 84 Stat. 1670-74) was signed into law by U.S. President Richard Nixon on December 30, 1970. It was enacted by the 91st United States Congress. This law required the use of child-resistant packaging for prescription drugs, over-the-counter (OTC) drugs, household chemicals, and other hazardous materials that could be considered dangerous for children.
Before the PPPA was enacted, unintentional poisonings by both medicines and common household products were considered by most pediatricians to be the leading cause of injury to children aged 5 and under. At that time there were about 500 deaths per year being reported for children aged 5 and under due to accessibility of these chemicals. The purpose of the PPPA was to protect children from ingesting harmful chemicals and prescription medications by accident. After the PPPA was implemented, deaths in children aged 5 and under went down by 1.4 per million. This represented a reduction in the rate of fatalities, up to 45%, from projections of deaths without the presence of child-proof packaging and equated to an average of 24 fewer deaths in children annually.
In 1957, the National Clearinghouse for Poison Control Centers was established with the goal in mind to collect data from different individual poison control centers and provide them with the information needed on the many types of household products involved in childhood poisonings.
Some of the earliest attempts at controlling the problem of poisonings in children came about after World War II. In 1960, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), in association with the American Medical Association (AMA), drafted what became known as the Hazardous Substances Labeling Act. This law stated that certain products, identified as 'hazardous substances' within the meaning of the law, had to carry on their labels specific statements of caution.
There are some exceptions to the child-resistant packaging. There were concerns about accessibility of medications to the elderly and handicapped. As such, a manufacturer may package any over-the-counter household substance, subject to a PPPA standard, in a single-size package if the manufacturer also supplies such a substance in packages that comply with such a standard and if the packages of such substance that do not meet such standard bear conspicuous labeling stating: "This package for households without young children" (or “Package Not Child-Resistant” for small packages). As a result, with the exception of prescription drugs, manufacturers of certain household products that are regulated under the PPPA have the option of marketing one size in a conventional package as long as that same product is supplied in a popular-sized package, which is child-resistant.
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