CPSC Amends Mandatory Safety Standard for Architectural Glazing Materials

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) voted 5-0 to amend the agency’s mandatory safety standard for architectural glazing materials. CPSC’s testing procedures, in place since 1977, are being replaced with more up-to-date procedures used in the ANSI Z97.1-2015 consensus safety standard. The new testing procedures go into effect 30 days after the rule is published in the Federal Register.

The standard applies to glazing materials used or intended for use in any of the following architectural products:

(1) Storm doors or combination doors,
(2) Doors (both exterior and interior),
(3) Bathtub doors and enclosures,
(4) Shower doors and enclosures, and
(5) Sliding glass doors (patio-type). 

On June 26, 2012, the Commission received a petition from the Safety Glazing Certification Council (SGCC) requesting that the Commission initiate rulemaking to replace the testing procedures for glazing materials in certain architectural products set forth in the ANSI standard. SGCC stated that consumers and the glazing industry would be better served if the test procedures for glazing materials used in architectural products in 16 C.F.R. § 1201.4 were replaced with the ANSI standard because the ANSI test procedures are more efficient and modern, having been updated periodically, in contrast to the CPSC standard.

In 2013, the Commission voted to grant the petition, and in 2015, the Commission published a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPR). A new version of the ANSI standard was published after the NPR, which contains updates to several sections of the standard.

The amendment replacing the test procedures specified in CPSC’s mandatory standard did not involve a material change to the regulations and maintains the scope of products covered by the original regulation.