North America: New safety standards for button/coin battery products,
button/coin battery,

▍What is WERCSmart REGISTRATION?

WERCSmart is the abbreviation of World Environmental Regulatory Compliance Standard.

WERCSmart is a product registration database company developed by a US company called The Wercs. It aims to provide a supervision platform of product safety for supermarkets in US and Canada, and make product purchasing easier. In the processes of selling, transporting, storing and disposing products among retailers and registered recipients, products will face increasingly complicated challenges from federal, states or local regulation. Usually, the Safety Data Sheets (SDSs) supplied along with the products do not cover adequate data of which information shows compliance with laws and regulations. While WERCSmart transforms the product data to that conforming to laws and regulations.

▍Scope of registration products

Retailers determine the registration parameters for each supplier. Following categories shall be registered for reference. However, the list below is incomplete, so verification on registration requirement with your buyers is suggested.

◆All Chemical Containing Product

◆OTC Product and Nutritional Supplements

◆Personal Care Products

◆Battery-Driven Products

◆Products with Circuit Boards or Electronics        

◆Light Bulbs

◆Cooking Oil                      

◆Food dispensed by Aerosol or Bag-On-Valve

▍Why MCM？

● Technical personnel support: MCM is equipped with a professional team who studies SDS laws and regulations for long. They have in-depth knowledge of the change of laws and regulations and have provided authorized SDS service for a decade. 

● Closed-loop type service: MCM has professional personnel communicating with auditors from WERCSmart, ensuring smooth process of registration and verification. So far, MCM has provided WERCSmart registration service for more than 200 clients.

The United States recently published two final decisions in the Federal Register
Effective date: come into force from October 23, 2023. Taking into account testing availability, the Commission will grant a 180 days enforcement transition period from September 21, 2023 to March 19, 2024.
Final rule: incorporate UL 4200A-2023 into federal regulations as a mandatory consumer product safety rule for consumer products containing coin cells or coin batteries.
Effective date: come into force from September 21, 2024.
Final rule: the labeling requirements for button cell or coin battery packaging needs to meet the requirements of 16 CFR Part 1263. Since UL 4200A-2023 does not involve labeling of battery packaging, the labeling is required on button cell or coin battery packaging.
The source of both decisions is because the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) has approved a mandatory standard in the recent vote– ANSI/UL 4200A-2023, mandatory safety rules for consumer products containing button cells or button batteries.
Earlier in February 2023, in accordance with the requirements of “Reese’s Law” promulgated on August 16, 2022, the CPSC issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPR) to regulate the safety of consumer products that containing button cells or button batteries (referring to MCM 34th Journal).