Child Protection from the Unwanted Elements

It is a common scenario to see children putting things in their mouth every now and then. They do not know whether it is harmful for them or not. This generally happens when they have new teeth coming out or when they are attracted to something. Most often when we want children to take some medicine, we tell them that it a candy. But seldom do we realize that the child might try and take the medicine again considering it to be a candy as we had told them earlier. The risk is always in. We must be ready at our end to fight against it.

We do not have anything in the market that can cure the child once he has consumed something poisonous. So we must be even more careful with such incidents. Everyone tries their level best that this situation must not arise. But you cannot stay around your child 24X7. All hopes turned to medical science for a solution to the same. They discovered something that could have been considered as the last line of defense. This was a package that helped stop the children from ingesting unhealthy and dangerous items. Since it is a crucial matter and involves safety of your child, the package that you intend to use must be tested first. This process is known as child resistant package testing.

There are many laboratories that undertake such testing. Before you use the package on your child, make sure you have it tested through one of the laboratories. You can find a number of such laboratories if you search for them online. An ideal laboratory must consider and abide by the following standards while it is testing the packages:-

• U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (16 CFR, part 1700)

• Environmental Protection Agency (40 CFR, part 162)

• Canadian Standards (CSA Z76.1 & Z76.2)

• European Standards (EN8317 &EN14375)

• International Standards (ISO 8317, ISO 13127, ASTM D3475)

Apart from abiding by the standards, these laboratories must have tested numerous packages for child resistance. This would be beneficial as the laboratory would be able to have a comparative analysis of the package and give out better results. While selecting a laboratory, you must also ensure that they provide you with a professional testing program, courteous, knowledgeable service, programs that would complete on time and results that would be reported promptly.

The same issue can occur in the case of a senior person as well. When they have sight issues and lesser knowledge of the medicines, they may encounter such issues. These packages are often used for both children and the aged individuals. So while conducting child resistant package testing, the laboratory must also test it for senior use effectiveness as this aspect is equally important. These laboratories must conduct the tests at various places such as child care centers, schools, camps, shopping malls, senior centers and other forums where children and aged people are available in numbers. A good laboratory with a lot of experience can provide you with package preference and product preference too in accordance with the tests that they have conducted.