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UPED-20081001-004
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Connecticut Restricts Lead in Children's Products
June 30, 2008
USA - Connecticut - Restricted Substances Overview
On June 2, 2008, Connecticut enacted legislation imposing restrictions on the sale of children's products
containing lead. House Bill 5650, "An Act Concerning Child Product Safety" (the "Act"), amends the existing State
Child Protection Act to impose a ban beginning July 1, 2009 on the sale of children’s products that exceed the
limits established by the Act. The amendments to the State Child Protection Act at Title 21a, Chapter 420d will
take effect October 1, 2008 unless otherwise noted.
Beginning July 1, 2009, the Act will prohibit the sale of “children’s products” that exceed the following limitations:
300 ppm total lead content by weight for any part of the product;
90 ppm total lead content in lead-containing paint; and
009 milligrams of lead per centimeter squared in lead-containing paint.
Conn. Gen. Stat. § 21a-335(p). Effective July 1, 2011, the limit on the total lead content by weight for any part of
the product will be lowered to 100 ppm. The Act specifically authorizes the Commissioner of Consumer Protection
(the “Commissioner”) to enact regulations establishing a standard as low as 40 ppm on or after July 1, 2011 if
such a standard is feasible. Conn. Gen. Stat. § 21a-336(d).
If it is determined by the Commissioner that it is not feasible for children’s products that are electronic devices,
including batteries, to meet the standards listed above by July 1, 2009, the Act authorizes the Commissioner to
adopt regulations that (1) set standards to reduce the exposure of and accessibility to lead in such devices, and
(2) establish a schedule by which such electronic devices shall be in full compliance with the standards
established in the Act. Conn. Gen. Stat. § 21a-337(c). The Act does not define “electronic devices.”
The Act defines a “children’s product” as “a consumer product designed or intended primarily for children under
age twelve, including, but not limited to, clothing, accessories, jewelry, decorative object[s], candy, food, dietary
supplements or other edible or chewable items, toys, furniture or other article used by or intended to be used by
children.” Conn. Gen. Stat. § 21a-335(v).
Excluded from the ban on children’s products are those that would be categorized as hazardous because they
contain a component that exceeds the Act’s limits on lead content where “such component is not accessible to a
child because it is not physically exposed by reason of a covering or casing and if it will not become physically
exposed through normal and reasonably foreseeable use and abuse of the product. For the purposes of this
subsection, paint, coatings or electroplating shall not be considered barriers that would render lead in the
substrate inaccessible to a child through normal and reasonably foreseeable use and abuse of the product.”
Conn. Gen. Stat. § 21a-337(b).
Section 6(a) of the Act authorizes the Commissioner to adopt regulations requiring lead-containing consumer
products that contain lead-containing paint or that have lead in any part of the product that a child may
reasonably or foreseeably come into contact with to carry warning labels. The warning label requirement does not
apply to children’s products, and those consumer products with lead-containing components that “are not be
accessible to a child because they are not physically exposed by reason of a covering or casing and they will not
become physically exposed through normal and reasonably foreseeable use and abuse of the product.” Section
6(b).
The same week that the Connecticut Act became law, Vermont enacted similar legislation regulating lead in
children’s products.
UPED-20081001-004
