BulletProofBlog the blog on crisis communications

Consumer product companies and toy makers caught a break this week, as the Consumer Product Safety Commission delayed by a year the enforcement of certain provisions of the new Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act.

While manufacturers of children's products still must meet stringent new limits on total content of lead and phthalates (chemicals used to make plastic more flexible), the agency has relaxed the bill' s requirement that companies test products on the way to store shelves to verify they are in compliance.

This is welcome news for global manufacturers and importers of everything from toys and baby bottles to infant cribs and costume jewelry. But companies would be imprudent to simply breathe a sigh of relief and go about business as usual. The fact is that almost no manufacturers or retailers were prepared to comply with the new law, which was passed last fall in the aftermath of record product recalls in 2007 and 2008. The CPSC recognized that chaotic recalls would almost surely have ensued if TV camera crews and crusading bloggers conducted spot checks at toy and discount stores around the country and found newly shipped toys, trinkets, and baby clothes that hadn' t been tested for safety.

Manufacturers should use this new-found peacetime wisely - by checking their product lines, reassuring nervous retailers, and preparing their recall and crisis communications plans in the event they are needed later this year or in 2010, when the CPSC' s reprieve on testing expires. Retailers, in turn, must coordinate and test their on-site recall plans with their manufacturing partners to be sure they are ready for heightened scrutiny of products already on shelves. Most important, manufacturers and retailers must work together to develop and test coordinated crisis communications plans that can be implemented as soon as a recall occurs.

And remember - there is one part of the new law that hasn' t been relaxed: If companies do a poor job of executing or communicating a recall to consumers, they are now subject to multi-million-dollar fines, as well as civil and criminal prosecution from plaintiffs' lawyers and state attorneys general who were granted expanded powers by Congress.