Guidance Document: Application of Human Factors to Consumer Products - Summary

Overview

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) staff and Health Canada’s Consumer and Hazardous Products Safety Directorate (“Health Canada”) have developed this guidance document to help consumer product manufacturers integrate human factors principles into their product development process.

Many product-related injuries can be prevented by better design. Providing the consumer product industry with suggestions on how to apply human factors principles to their products can help lower the number of product-related adverse incidents and reduce costly compliance and enforcement actions. These suggestions can be tailored to meet the needs of a particular product, while understanding that not all practices apply to all products.

This document is not a rule or regulation, and is not meant to create legally enforceable responsibilities. This document must be read in conjunction with the applicable legislation. To the extent that this document might be inconsistent with the legislation, the latter shall prevail.

Beyond what is outlined in this document, industry is reminded to comply with relevant rules and regulatory requirements in the respective jurisdictions. Rules or regulatory requirements that apply to specific products must be a part of the human factors analysis throughout the life cycle of a product. Beyond this, industry should consider any relevant voluntary standards that may help inform the design of a particular product. Beyond product-specific design considerations, industry must also comply with other requirements, such as record retention and incident reporting.

Who these guidelines are for

In these guidelines

Details and history

Published:       March 06, 2020

To request a copy of these guidelines

These guidelines may be updated from time to time. For the most recent version, contact a Health Canada Consumer Product Safety Office via email hc.ccpsa-lcspc.sc@canada.ca or telephone at 1-866-662-0666 (toll-free within Canada and the United States).

For assistance

For further information, visit the resources in Appendix A of these guidelines or contact a Health Canada Consumer Product Safety Office via email hc.ccpsa-lcspc.sc@canada.ca or telephone at 1-866-662-0666 (toll-free within Canada and the United States).

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