Intertek

Intertek Joins Retail Led Consumer Product Safety Effort

The Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA) announced today that Intertek, a leading international provider of quality and safety solutions, has joined RILA and the British Retail Consortium (BRC) as a sponsor in the creation and implementation of a meaningful global manufacturing standard for consumer goods. This retail industry led standard will enhance the safety of products worldwide.

RILA members embrace their role as leaders in the product safety arena. Earlier this year RILA and the BRC forged a partnership to develop a global product safety standard in North America. BRC/RILA standard will help retailers comply with the new regulations by establishing a meaningful, achievable and certifiable worldwide measure by which manufacturing operations are set. The BRC/RILA standard will be a truly global product safety standard.

Intertek will join RILA and the BRC as third party auditor and one of three select non-voting members of the RILA Technical Advisory Committee (TAC). With participation from many of America's leading retailers, TAC is responsible for guiding the development of these standards.

"Our progress thus far has been tremendous, and we are delighted to welcome Intertek to this important effort," said Jim Neill, vice president of product safety. "Intertek's proven success in assessing risk and ensuring the safety of products in a manner that is effective and efficient adds a strong new champion to our efforts and we look forward to working with them to reach our product safety goals."

Gene Rider, Vice President Global Retail Leader and President of Intertek Consumer Goods North America adds, "Intertek is proud to contribute to global public policy efforts in support of consumer product safety. We are happy to offer our expertise in the areas of testing, inspection, certification and quality assurance to RILA, their membership and the BRC."

The target date for release of the new standard (North American version) is October 2009, with implementation of the new standards anticipated by Spring 2010.

BRC/RILA Partnership
The BRC has developed global standards that have gained support from European retailers. Standards have been developed for food, packaging, storage and distribution, and consumer products.
RILA in partnership with the BRC, are adopting the consumer products standards in North America, making them truly global to enhance the safety of products worldwide. RILA's vision is to proactively protect consumers and retail brands by partnering with suppliers to adopt and implement these industry-wide, global safety standards, while advocating effective legislation and regulatory compliance.
RILA and the BRC are working to enhance an already established international network of approved certification bodies and a proven process to deliver third party certification through global supply chains. As a certification body, sponsor and a TAC member, Intertek will provide input into the guidelines and implementation schedule for the role out of the product category guidelines.

About RILA
The Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA) promotes consumer choice and economic freedom through public policy and industry operational excellence. RILA members include the largest and most successful companies in the retail industry. RILA provides its members with unique educational forums, effective public policy advocacy, and advancement of the retail industry.

About Intertek
Intertek (ITRK.L) is a leading provider of quality and safety solutions serving a wide range of industries around the world. From auditing and inspection, to testing, quality assurance and certification, Intertek people are dedicated to adding value to customers' products and processes, supporting their success in the global marketplace. Intertek has the expertise, resources and global reach to support its customers through its network of more than 1,000 laboratories and offices and over 23,000 people in 110 countries around the world.

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Intertek and the American Apparel and Footwear Association Petition U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission for Sensible Testing Practices

Intertek and the American Apparel and Footwear Association (AAFA) jointly submitted a petition today to formally request the CPSC to expressly approve certain lab testing procedures to determine the presence of lead paint on toys and other children's products--methods the two groups believe will save manufacturers millions of dollars without any loss of test reliability.

Since the enactment of the landmark Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008, some assert that the law only allows testing labs like Intertek to test final, finished products to mandatory safety standards, including the ban on lead paint. Because some products may have only a small area of paint (like the fingernails on a doll or painted buttons on a child's garment), this interpretation requires the destruction of an unnecessarily large number of product samples, since the paint must be scraped from the samples, rendering them unusable. These samples--sometimes several hundred per product--are then discarded. This represents a huge cost to manufacturers, especially crafters and other small businesses, which discourages companies from testing and needlessly impacts the environment with discarded samples.

To solve this dilemma, Intertek and AAFA have today asked the CPSC to formally recognize, as acceptable under the CPSIA, certain test methods to detect lead in paint and other surface coatings--procedures that result in the destruction of far fewer samples but with the same or better reliability of those tests. Specifically, the two groups have requested the agency recognize the acceptability of "spray sampling" (painting an entire product with the same color paint, giving lab workers more surface coating to test), "multiple stamping" (stamping products repeatedly with the same paint or ink appliqué to garner a larger sample) and "finished component testing," allowing painted buttons, for example, to be tested before they are sewn onto a garment rather than destroying the finished garment during testing.
"Intertek is continually striving to find cost-saving, pro-safety solutions for our customers and partners, like the AAFA," said Gene Rider, President of Intertek Consumer Goods, North America. "What we are today proposing to the CPSC represents a win-win-win: saving our customers money and time, preventing the wasteful destruction of finished products, and at the same time enhancing the reliability of testing and the safety of children's toys, garments and other items."

Under its regulations, the CPSC has a "reasonable time" to act on this Petition, and the Petitioners have also requested a public hearing to discuss these proposals. The text of the Petition to the CPSC is at: http://www.intertek-labtest.com/brochures/intertek_aafa_petition

About Intertek
Intertek (ITRK.L) is a leading provider of quality and safety solutions serving a wide range of industries around the world. From auditing and inspection, to testing, quality assurance and certification, Intertek people are dedicated to adding value to customers' products and processes, supporting their success in the global marketplace. Intertek has the expertise, resources and global reach to support its customers through its network of more than 1,000 laboratories and offices and over 23,000 people in 110 countries around the world.

For more information, visit www.intertek.com/consumergoods