Switzerland : Lindner Sprühsysteme has announced that it now has the capability of producing child-resistant packaging for hazardous substances in households, meeting the European Union “Classification, Labelling and Packaging” Regulation (CLP Regulation).
The regulation dictates that certain hazardous household substances and mixtures posing a danger to children be packaged in a child-resistant way.
Stefan Lindner, managing director at Lindner Sprühsysteme, said, “Child-resistant packaging is a rather simple way to protect small children at home and to prevent severe accidents. For that reason, our child-resistant packages, that minimize the risk as much as possible, are always in demand.”
In almost every household, on closer inspection, are different products to be found that may pose a danger to a child. These include for example household detergents, cleaning agents, drain cleaners, lamp oils, paints and lacquers etc.
During the testing procedure up to 200 children aged between 42 and 51 months are asked to open a package.
A child resistant package has to be impossible to open for at least 85 percent of the children. As the child-resistant packaging has also to be senior-friendly, the package is tested with a panel of adults aged between 50 and 70.
The entire package has to be certified, a closure alone can’t be approved as child-resistant without the corresponding container, thereby a package has to be tested and certified as a whole. In order to avoid confusion, the certificate of child resistance must indicate the names of the closure(s) and container(s) tested and the corresponding basic mass.
A child resistant package usually requires a special ‘trick’ to open it – something too complicated for most small children to figure out. For example, users might have to push the closure downward while turning it counterclockwise until it rotates and opens.
Lindner explained, “In case of new packaging development, we support our customers throughout the whole process: from an idea to a one-stop solution tailored to the customer´s needs and from there to the handling of the certification for child resistance. The safety of the end user and thereby protection of the manufacturing or distributing companies from legal ramifications play a central role in this process.”