What Qualifies As Child-Resistant Packaging?

From dietary supplements to pharmaceutical medication, child-resistant packaging plays a significant role in keeping our community safe. Children are naturally inquisitive about the world around them, which makes cannabis products especially dangerous in their presence. However, child-resistant packaging ensures a protective layer of security that makes it particularly difficult to open.

The cannabis industry faces rigid standards when it comes to child-resistant packaging. Before the legalization of cannabis, the concern surrounding accessibility to children turned it into even more of a contentious topic. Still, it’s an important one since there are plenty of parents who are medical patients. Ensuring they can get their medication while protecting their children from potential ingestion is of the utmost importance in this business.

However, what qualifies as child-resistant cannabis packaging? After all, they come in all forms and sizes with different technology to secure various packaging types. 

The Beginning Of Child-Resistant Packaging 

Child-resistant packaging became a solution to a rising number of children opening the packaging and ingesting the contents. From there, Congress passed the Poison Prevention Packaging Act of 1970, which requires businesses to use child-resistant packaging.

However, Dr. Henri Breault, the Chief of Pediatrics and Director of the Poison Control Centre at Hotel Dieu Hospital, developed the first child-resistant technology. During his stint at Hotel Dieu Hospital, he created the palm n turn technology in 1967, which companies continues to use for pill bottles until this day. 

Child-resistant technology has evolved since then with pinch-n-pull seals for bags, press-button for pre-rolls, and much more. These packaging solutions have undoubtedly saved many lives and prevented children from accessing potentially toxic chemicals and products. In the cannabis industry, child-resistant packaging has enabled legalization in every state that allows retail sales. At this point, it’s the only immediate solution that prevents children from accessing products that seemingly appeal to them, such as infused candies.

Child-Resistant Packaging Qualifications

There are three primary qualifications for child-resistant packaging, as defined by state laws. Ultimately, the main goal is to ensure that child-resistant packaging is overtly challenging to open by children under five years old.

• Child-resistant packaging must be certified under the Poison Prevention Packaging Act. Thorough examination is the only way to ensure that your packaging is up to standard. Once companies thoroughly test the packaging, it’s certified by PPPA standards. You could ask your packaging supplier to have PPPA-compliant cannabis packaging certification.
• Bottles made for single-serve require a cap with a cork-style pry-off metal crown. 
• Plastic packaging with a thickness of 4 mm that is heat sealed. These can not have an easy-open tab or flap to open the packaging.

These regulations cover the basic understanding of the child-resistant packaging qualifications. However, there are two main types of child-resistant packaging to be aware of, especially within the cannabis industry.

1. Single Use, otherwise known as Initial CRP, is designed to ensure that your products are child-resistant once purchased. However, the child-resistant technology no longer works after the package is opened. Sometimes, tamper-evident packaging can fall under this category. 

In the cannabis industry, single-use CRP is essential for the following products: flower, pre-roll, topical, dab, shatter, wax, and vape cartridges. Each package must include a label reading, “This package is not child-resistant after opening.”

1. Multiple Use, also known as Lifetime CPR, provides durable resistance against access to packaging. As opposed to Single Use, Lifetime CPR remains child-resistant throughout the lifetime of the packaging. Due to the additional security measures, lifetime CPR means that consumers’ products remain safe, even after opening. 

Cannabis companies must use Lifetime CPR for the following products: edibles, tinctures, capsules, concentrates orally ingested, and suppositories. Companies should note that a package that includes more than a single serving doesn’t require child-resistant technology if each serving is packaged in child-resistant packaging. 

How Is Child-Resistant Packaging Tested?

Child-resistant packaging undergoes rigid testing before companies are allowed to use them for retail. However, child-resistant packaging isn’t an absolute solution. 

Child-resistant packaging companies test their products by the standards of the CPSC through real-world subjects. Typically, this requires a panel of children between 42 to 51 months of age who have 10 minutes to try and open the packaging. Ultimately, 80% of the children on the panel should not be able to open the package to ensure they’re up to standard. 

At the same time, packaging requires another panel of seniors between the ages of 50 to 70 who don’t have any physical or mental disabilities. The testing for adults is a two-step process that begins with panel members opening a child-resistant package. 90% should be able to open the package within five minutes in the first round. In the second round, they must open the packaging within one minute before closing it again to ensure it is child resistant.

Bottom Line 

Child-resistant technology is essential to the cannabis industry. However, cannabis companies must be aware of faulty products, which are heavily circulating these days. The best way to ensure your products are up to standard is by asking your supplier for child-resistant certification.