Founded in 1993, the International Consumer Product Health and Safety Organization (ICPHSO - pronounced ICK - FA - SO) is a non-profit volunteer run organization which attracts a global membership of health and safety professionals which meets annually to exchange ideas, share information, and address health and safety concerns affecting all consumers. We are a one-of a kind organization since we provide all product safety stakeholders an opportunity to come together either virtually or in person to advance consumer product safety globally.

ICPHSO members represent U.S. and global government agencies, manufacturers, importers, retailers, trade associations, certification/testing laboratories, law firms, consultants, academia, health educators, standards writing organizations, media, consumer advocacy groups, and others involved in the consumer product safety community.

The International Consumer Product Health and Safety Organization (ICPHSO) is a unique organization comprised of almost every type of stakeholder within the consumer product safety community with the shared goal of working together to advance the state of consumer product safety. ICPHSO does not advocate on specific issues, and exists solely to provide a neutral forum where these disparate interests can come together to learn from each other, exchange ideas, and find common ground in the quest to make consumer products as safe as possible.

ICPHSO’s services can be divided into two general categories – educational programs and information. ICPHSO hosts three types of events– an annual symposium in the United States, an annual symposium outside of the United States, and North America based regional training workshops. ICPHSO also seeks to provide current and timely information to the public and its members on product health and safety developments through its website – www.icphso.org – and through electronic notifications, bulletins, social media platform posts, and ICPHSO Blog updates. These platforms are all used to provide updates to members and others the latest ICPHSO information.  

Annual Meeting and Training Symposium: Attracting over 800 participants each year, ICPHSO’s signature symposium is held each year in the United States, generally either the third or last week in February, and features plenary sessions on international trends and developments in product health and safety, global regulations impacting product safety stakeholders, with a North American focus on the activities of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), Health Canada, and PROFECOand their product safety work. There’s also emphasis on basic training in legal and compliance-oriented aspects of product health and safety. The symposium also features such prominent public-sector keynote speakers as the CPSC Chairman and private sector experts as well concurrent tutorials and interactive breakout sessions round out the program, enabling participants to engage on timely and specialized topics of particular interest. The Annual Symposium is held in Orlando, Florida and every third year in the Washington, D.C. area.

International Symposium: Since 2005, ICPHSO has hosted symposiums outside of the United States in support of international dialogue on product health and safety matters. Such international symposiums to date have been held in Europe, Asia, Australia and Canada. Similar to ICPHSO’s annual symposium, the international annual symposiums attract between 200-350 participants representing a broad cross-section of stakeholders, organizations, agencies, and economies. Every two years, ICPHSO joins with the European Commission and holds its International Symposium in Brussels during the European Commission's International Product Safety Week. The two day International Symposium provides an opportunity to reach many global regulators who don’t generally attend the Annual Symposium.

North America Regional Training Workshop: ICPHSO also hosts a yearly regional workshop that offer manufacturers and suppliers in-depth training on product health and safety requirements and compliance obligations. These one-day workshops to date have focused primarily on understanding and complying with North America regulatory requirements including a focus on CPSC, Health Canada, and other regulatory agency rules and regulations and provide a single day of smaller interactive training. Regional training workshops have been held throughout North America, including at the corporate headquarters of Amazon, Seattle, Washington, Home Depot, Atlanta, Georgia; McDonalds, Chicago, Illinois; Coca Cola, Atlanta, Georgia; Best Buy, Minneapolis, Minnesota; Toys R' Us, Wayne, New Jersey, on the campus of St Louis University, St. Louis, Missouri and in Toronto, Canada. The workshops generally include about 200-250 safety professionals from North America and beyond.

Information

The ICPHSO website contains a wealth of information about the organization and its activities. ICPHSO’s members enjoy special access to the expanded information library housing past symposium proceedings, among other things. ICPHSO’s social media postings offer insights to recent product health and safety trends and issues, scheduled events and programs, and individuals in the field.

Collaborative Meetings/Conferences with Other Organizations

• ICPHSO has collaborated with ASTM and held one day meetings on specific safety related issues
• Power Hour follow up discussions post conference explore conference sessions of special interest to attendees and allow for deeper and more interaction discussion of the issue.

Career Center

• Online job posting and listing service for product safety and health professionals. Members receive additional discounts for posting available jobs
• There is no cost to post a resume or look at available product safety related jobs

Committees

Strategic Planning Committee: To create a vision of ICPHSO's direction by molding collective experiences of its past into paradigms for the future.

Annual Meeting and Training Symposium Planning Committee: To plan effective and engaging components for the four-day signature Symposium to meet the needs of ICPHSO's diverse membership and stakeholders.

International Symposium Planning Committee: To provide the opportunity and forum for the international product safety community to identify common issues and workable plans for improving the safety of products in the global marketplace and to coordinate the annual International Symposium.

Regional Training Workshop Planning Committee: To plan an exciting and educational one day workshop/training to be held in a Region where one of ICPHSO's supporters can host the workshop.

Executive Director Outreach: The Executive Director, working with the ICPHSO management company, coordinates all operations of ICPHSO, including outreach to new members and conference locations and planning. Working with the planning chair for each conference and the organizations’ Meeting Manager, outreach is provided to individuals and organizations interested in attending and speaking at Working with ICPHSO’s Sponsorship Manager, opportunities to sponsor and exhibit at ICPHSO conferences are coordinated and help support the organization Special emphasis is placed on ensuring scholarship funding is available for those product safety stakeholders who may not have the financial capability of attending and participating in one of our conferences can still attend so all stakeholder perspectives are presented. Specialized one day workshops conducted in collaboration with other organizations to further ICPHSO outreach to the product safety community are also coordinated through the Executive Director.