Legal Requirements

As certain cleansing agents and drugs have dangerous properties that can be detrimental to he health of children, national and international laws have been legislated to create statutory rules about the use of child resistant packaging.

These laws decide which products with which dangerous properties or ingredients have to be sold only in child resistant packages.

The laws also decide which requirements the packaging has to fulfil in order to be declared child-resistant by the legislative authorities and who has permission to confirm that the packaging fulfils the required standards.

The legal requirements in the United States published under US 16 CFR § 1700 regard dangerous chemical-technical and for pharmaceutical products. US 16 CFR § 1700 lays down that dangerous household products, also most drugs available on prescription, require child resistant packaging.

In Europe, the European directives 1999/45/EC and 1967/548/EEC serve as legal bases for child resistant packaging of dangerous substances and preparations.

European directives are transposed into national law; for example the Ordinance on Hazardous Substances in Germany. In Germany, drugs have to be packaged in a child resistant manner if the use and the packaging of their ingredients are regulated by the strict conditions under section 28 of the German Medicine Act.

If it is regulated by law that a certain substance, preparation or medical product has to have a child resistant packaging, it has to be proven by a certificate that the packaging is child resistant according to the legal requirements.

Only an institute which has been accredited according to DIN EN 45 011 (DIN=German Institute for Standardisation, Deutsches Institut für Normung) is allowed to give out these certificates.