Safety Statements

CPSIA STATEMENT

The Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) was passed by the United States Congress in August of 2008. The sections of the law applicable to the Promotional Products industry concern items that are classified as Children’s Products. While all items featured in the 4over, LLC catalog are designed to meet applicable Federal regulations, they are not designed for, or intended for use by children. We do realize, however, that some of our products may fall under the CPSC’s new definition of what a “Children’s Product” is: The term “children’s product” means a consumer product designed or intended primarily for children 12 years of age or younger. In determining whether a consumer product is primarily intended for a child 12 years of age or younger, the following factors shall be considered:

(A) A statement by a manufacturer about the intended use of such product, including a label on such product if such statement is reasonable.
(B) Whether the product is represented in its packaging, display, promotion, or advertising as appropriate for use by children 12 years of age or younger.
(C) Whether the product is commonly recognized by consumers as being intended for use by a child 12 years of age or younger.
(D) The Age Determination Guidelines issued by the Commission staff in September 2002, and any successor to such guidelines.

THIRD-PARTY TESTING OF CHILDREN’S PRODUCTS

This new legislation imposes a third-party testing requirement for all consumer products primarily intended for children twelve years of age or younger. Every manufacturer (including an importer) or private labeler of a children’s product must have its product tested by an accredited independent testing lab and, based on the testing, must issue a certificate that the product meets all applicable CPSC requirements. Items in the catalog that are earmarked with the “CPSIA Compliant” logo have been classified by our Product Safety team as Children’s Products and have been tested by a CPSC approved 3rd Party laboratory for use by Children 3 years of age and up in accordance with ASTM F963-16 guidelines for “Toy Safety”. Item marked with this logo require certain tracking information to be present in order for the ultimate consumer to identify the origin of a product in the event of a product recall. In order to meet this CPSIA requirement, these items have the country of origin, “4over LLC”, and a unique tracking number molded and/or imprinted on them. For specifics on the location of this tracking imprint for a specific item, email promo@4over.com.

LEAD IN PAINT

The CPSIA has changed the acceptable levels of Lead in Paint and Surface Coatings for all consumer products from less than 600 ppm to less than 90 ppm effective August 2009. 4over, LLC items with painted surfaces have been and will continue to be in compliance with the applicable laws.

GENERAL CERTIFICATION (GCC)/CHILDREN’S PRODUCT CERTIFICATE (CPC)

The new legislation also increases the range of products that require testing and certification. Under prior law, certification was generally required only for consumer products subject to standards promulgated by the Commission under the Consumer Product Safety Act. Now, this general certification requirement has been extended to all products subject to bans as well as standards under the CPSA and to products subject to any similar rule, standard, ban, or regulation under any other Act enforced by the Commission. This General Certificate of Conformity (GCC) is called a Children’s Product Certificate (CPC) when certifying compliance of a children’s product or toy under the CPSIA. Section 102 of the CPSIA makes third party testing mandatory for children’s products, and the Final Rule for testing and labeling pertaining to product certification (16 CFR 1107) went into effect on February 8, 2013. Accordingly, 4over, LLC uses a CPSC approved third party testing facility to perform annual testing of all items identified as children’s products or toys; each item’s corresponding CPC is available on 4over, LLC/compliance, and the supporting test reports are available upon request.

4over, LLC maintains GCC forms for all children’s products in our line as well as products requiring general certification. These documents are available for download next to the corresponding product and can be found under the Compliance link in the Account Services section on our website, or can be furnished to customers upon request.

WARNING: Items throughout the catalog that are noted to contain one or more small magnets should be kept away from all children. Do not put in nose or mouth. Swallowed magnets can stick together across intestines causing serious injury or death. Seek immediate medical attention if magnet(s) are swallowed or inhaled.

 

PRODUCT SAFETY POLICY STATEMENT

4over, LLC is dedicated to providing its customers with safe products that exceed their expectations for quality and safety and designed to comply with all statutory and voluntary standards and regulations. We have assembled an executive level Product Safety and Compliance Team which is comprised of Senior Managers from Purchasing, Production, Operations, and Marketing that report directly to company Ownership and together have developed robust policies to deter and prevent non-compliant product from shipping to a customer. The foundation of these policies is based upon open daily communication internally and with our sourcing partners throughout the supply chain. Procedures have been established for product design and performance as well as raw material certification, regulatory requirements and traceability and the validation of communication leading up to the Design Approval Process. Additional procedures are in place for internal and external Third Party testing and Corrective Actions ending with manufacturer based and domestic inspections as well as a protocol for recall should the need arise.

Together with our legal counsel Callet Law and ANSECO An AsiaInspection Company, a leading provider of quality and safety services and an accredited Third Party Testing laboratory, we have identified all relevant product standards and regulations and have established voluntary standards.

While it is important to note that none of our products were designed or intended for Children under the age of 12, but for use by businesses and individuals as general use promotional items, we do realize that in most cases it is prudent to treat some of our items as a children’s product and to certify that these products comply with all applicable Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) safety rules, bans, standards and regulations and to issue a subsequent Children’s Product Certificate (CPC) which can be found for each applicable product on the website by clicking on the Compliance link under the Account Services tabor by visiting the individual item webpages and selecting Compliance in the Select and Action Box. (Note: a consolidated list of these items is available on our website.)

All items determined by our Product Safety and Compliance Team and outside counsel not to be children’s products have been reviewed and meet all applicable standards and regulations issued under the Consumer Product Safety Act (CPSA), the Federal Hazardous Substances Act (FHSA), the Flammable Fabrics Act (FFA), and the Poison Prevention Packaging Act (PPPA).

4over, LLC also received accreditation and certification from the Quality Certification Alliance (QCA), an independent, non-profit industry membership organization committed to the measurable improvement of product safety and quality and the accreditation of its applicant members through third party evaluation of social compliance, quality, product safety, environmental, and security systems at their headquarters and throughout the supply chain.

 

CALIFORNIA PROPOSITION 65 STATEMENTS

All products shipped by 4over, LLC, Inc. into the State of California are subject to Proposition 65 (“Prop 65”) or The Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986. “Prop 65” was created through the ballot initiative process and was intended to protect California citizens and the State’s drinking water from a State determined list of over 850 chemicals that are “known” by the State to cause cancer, reproductive harm, or birth defects. This list and other information regarding “Prop 65” can be accessed at http://oehha.ca.gov/prop65.html.

Prop 65 requires that a “clear and reasonable warning” be provided by a Person/Company in the course of doing business, who manufactures, produces, assembles, processes, handles, distributes, stores, sells, or otherwise transfers a consumer product which he or she knows to contain a chemical known to the state to cause cancer or reproductive toxicity to any person to whom the product is sold or transferred.

The lead state agency handling Proposition 65, the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA; www.oehha.ca.gov), has established safe harbor levels which include No Significant Risk Levels (NSRLs) for cancer-causing chemicals and Maximum Allowable Dose Levels (MADLs) for chemicals causing reproductive toxicity for many of the 850 chemicals listed under Proposition 65. Exposure levels and discharges to drinking water sources that are below the safe harbor levels are exempt from the requirements of Proposition 65. A document that provides the status of OEHHA’s adoption or development of NSRLs and MADLs is available below.

For chemicals that do not have published or established safe harbor levels, the burden is on the defendant to establish an appropriate MADL or NSRL, and to show that the exposures in its products do not exceed these levels. For exposures to consumer products, such as promotional items, the level of exposure to the listed chemical is calculated using the reasonably anticipated rate of intake or exposure for average users of the consumer product.

Companies are becoming increasingly vulnerable to lawsuits for Proposition 65 indiscretions. Proposition 65 may be enforced by the California Attorney General, public enforcers such as district attorneys, and private plaintiffs suing in the public interest (after they have first served a 60-day notice of violation on all public prosecutors and no public prosecutor proceeds to enforce the alleged violation). A plaintiff may seek injunctive relief as well as penalties of $2,500 per violation per day. A more general California statute allows most successful plaintiffs to recover their attorneys’ fees as well. It is important to note the very long reach of Proposition 65 liability. One need not be doing business in California to be in the chain of Proposition 65 litigation. Indeed, you could be a New Jersey distributor of products sold to you by a Massachusetts supplier, and your client could be doing business in New York, with no California affiliation. Should one of the items you sold to your client end up in California, you and your supplier and your client could be named as defendants in a Proposition 65 lawsuit, and the venue would be in California. 4over, LLC is fully committed to providing the highest quality, safest products for our clients and all 4over, LLC products meet applicable federal safety and warning requirements, standards and regulations as enforced by the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and the Federal Communications Commission. While procedures have been established as part of our ongoing Product Safety initiatives throughout our supply chain to insure the purchase and use of raw materials that will meet Prop 65 standards, our efforts have to date been focused on the Third Party testing of our products to insure that they are in compliance with the very stringent regulations set forth by the CPSIA in regards to lead content in substrates and surface coatings of Children’s Products and Toys along with applicable Phthalate content. While lead content has been the focus of litigation in Proposition 65 cases, our current Proposition strategy has been to use our lead testing program to demonstrate that the products that we ship to California meet the Proposition 65 standards for lead.

Because we cannot test every piece of every order that we ship to California for every one of the Proposition 65 listed 850 chemicals, you may continue to have concerns about compliance with Proposition 65. If so, then the safest option is to include a label on each product that may ship to the State of California which we will do free of charge upon request. The label will read as follows and will ensure full compliance with California Proposition 65 requirements:

warning WARNING: Cancer and Reproductive Harm - www.p65warnings.ca.gov.

For a plain language version of the Proposition 65 regulations, please visit: http://www.oehha.ca.gov/prop65/background/p65plain.html.