The Juvenile Products Manufacturers Association (JPMA) is a national trade association which represents 95% of the prenatal to preschool industry.    Today, the JPMA represents over 250 companies in the United States, Canada and Mexico who manufacture, import and/or distribute infant & juvenile products.

Many juvenile products standards in the industry are on a voluntary basis.  In the JPMA Certification Program a manufacturer submits its product to an independent laboratory in order to be tested against the highest mandatory and voluntary safety standards available today.  Only after the product passes rigorous testing for the applicable ASTM (American Society for Testing & Materials) standard(s) is the certification seal awarded.  * Included in the JPMA testing protocol is the standard 16CFR 1303 for lead content.

All testing is done at the manufacturer's expense and can amount to tens of thousands of dollars per product category.  Once a company has qualified, they must adhere to the quarterly testing requirements in order to keep their certification seal.  Also included in the JPMA program, is a random product test which is done at the retail level.  The certifying test laboratory will enter a retail establishment and purchase the product as if they were a consumer.  Then JPMA testing is conducted on the product to ensure that the manufacturer has not altered the product in any way and that it still complies with the certification standards.