Director’s Blog by Nancy Cowles: a week at ICPHSO

Leap Day fell at the start of a busy week in DC. On behalf of KID, I am a member of the International Consumer Health and Safety Organization (ICPHSO[1]), an organization that brings together all the stakeholders in product safety to share information, best practices and new research on how to keep consumers safe.

As Symposium Chair, I worked with ICPHSO staff, volunteers and board members to pull together our annual symposium held last week in Washington DC.

Here are some highlights:

• Over 750 came together to hear from over 100 speakers on panels and speeches ranging from risk assessment to licensing, from warning research to green chemistry and everything in between.
• US CPSC Chairman Elliot Kaye gave the keynote on CPSC day – a day when CPSC staff provide updates on their efforts to improve product safety and give guidance to industry on complying with safety regulations.  We heard from all five commissioners and many CPSC staff throughout the week.
• Senator Tom Udall (NM) spoke of his work in the area of concussion prevention, Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) and other safety issues.
• Attendees could also visit the US CPSC labs in Maryland, join others at Dine-Arounds at great local restaurants in DC and take an evening “Monuments by Moonlight” tour.

KID was able to share our research and work on recall effectiveness, furniture tip-overs, and our work with the Illinois Institute of Technology Institute of Design on a comprehensive project to bring innovation to recalls.

I am now President of ICPHSO and thrilled to lead such a great organization that does so much to further knowledge, collaboration and progress in product safety. Learn more here and consider joining to have access to symposium proceedings as well as upcoming regional and international meetings expanding on the themes investigated last week in DC.

[1] We spend a lot of time talking about how to pronounce the name – it is IC-FA-SO!