Founded in 1993, the International Consumer Product Health and Safety Organization (ICPHSO - pronounced ICK - FA - SO) is the only 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.

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 Annual Meeting and Training Symposium, International Symposium and North America Training Workshop

 
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 and bulletins.  In addition, updates from the organization are available through the Executive Director's Blog which is routinely updated to provide members and others the latest ICPHSO information.  

Honoring Product Safety Heroes

Annual Meeting and Training Symposium: Attracting about 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, on the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) and its work, and 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.

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 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 publicly available list of websites where interested parties can locate additional information on consumer product health and safety matters. ICPHSO’s members enjoy special access to the expanded information library housing past symposium proceedings, among other things. ICPHSO’s Executive Director's blog offers insights to recent product health and safety trends and issues, scheduled events and programs, and individuals in the field.

Committees 

Working committees reflect the varied interests of the ICPHSO membership:

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.

North America 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 coordinates all operations of ICPHSO, including outreach to new members.  In addition, outreach is provided to individuals and organizations interested in attending ICPHSO conferences as well as potential sponsors and exhibitors.  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.

Through these committees and interests, each ICPHSO member has the opportunity to apply her or his own knowledge and commitment for the betterment of consumer product health and safety. As an ICPHSO member, you are invited to participate in one or more of these committees. For more information, please contact: Marc Schoem, marc.schoem@icphso.org.