A bottle ofaspirin with a child-resistant cap bearing the instruction "push down & turn to open"Opening many C-R packages involves two dissimilar motions
Child-resistant packaging orCR packaging is specialpackaging used to reduce the risk of children ingesting hazardous materials. This is often accomplished by the use of a specialsafety cap. It is required by regulation for prescription drugs, over-the-counter medications, Nicotine Containing Electronic Cigarette devices or Refill containers that can contain Nicotine EUTPD 36.7[1][2][3]pesticides, and household chemicals.[4] In some jurisdictions,unit packaging such asblister packs is also regulated for child safety.[5]
TheU.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission has stated in a press release that "There is no such thing as child-proof packaging. So you shouldn't think of packaging as your primary line of defense. Rather, you should think of packaging, even child-resistant packaging, as your last line of defense."[6]
The child-resistant locking closure for containers was invented in 1967 by Dr.Henri Breault.[7]
A history of accidents involving children opening household packaging and ingesting the contents led the United States Congress to pass thePoison Prevention Packaging Act of 1970, authored byU.S. SenatorFrank E. Moss ofUtah. This gave theU.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission[8][9] the authority to regulate this area. Additions throughout the decades have increased the initial coverage to include other hazardous items, including chemicals regulated by theEnvironmental Protection Agency. Although child-resistant lids are not perfect, there is strong evidence that use of child-resistant lids has reduced child poisoning rates in the UnitedStates substantially.[10] Coordination exists for improvinginternational standards on requirements and protocols.
Child-resistant packaging can be a problem for some aged individuals or people with disabilities.[11][12][13] Regulations require designs to be tested to verify that most adults can access the package.[14] Some jurisdictions allow pharmacists to provide medications in non-CR packages when there are no children in the same house.
The regulations are based on protocols ofperformance tests of packages with actual children, to determine if the packages can be opened. More recently, additionalpackage testing is used to determine if aged individuals or people with disabilities have the ability to open the same packages.[15][16]
Often the CR requirements are met by package closures which require two dissimilar motions for opening. Hundreds of package designs are available for packagers to consider.
^de la Fuente, Javier; Bix, Laura (2010). "User-pack Interaction: Insights for Designing Inclusive Child-resistant Packaging". In Langdon, P.; Clarkson, P.; Robinson, P. (eds.).Designing Inclusive Interactions. pp. 89–100.doi:10.1007/978-1-84996-166-0_9.ISBN978-1-84996-165-3.
