New Childproof, Easily Opened Packaging to Be Unveiled Today

Procter & Gamble Co. and the Consumer Product Safety Commission today will unveil new packaging intended to be both childproof and easy for adults with arthritis to open.

The federal safety agency will use the announcement to debut a new approach to product regulation that is low-budget and high-profile.

Procter & Gamble officials said the new package “uses adult reasoning skills rather than brute force” to solve the problem of creating a container that cannot be opened by a curious child but can be manipulated by a person with arthritis or some other condition that limits strength or dexterity.

Company officials said the new packaging will be used on mouthwash and a new non-prescription pain medication. They would give no other details.

Recognizing the importance of the new packaging, Procter & Gamble will receive the agency’s first “Chairman’s Commendation for Significant Contributions to Product Safety,” an award created by commission Chairman Ann Brown, who took office three weeks ago.

Brown is trying to revive an agency that was cut drastically by the Ronald Reagan and George Bush administrations and that still is facing budget cuts from a more sympathetic Clinton White House.

With no money for initiatives and Bush appointees holding two of the commission’s three seats, Brown told a group of reporters Tuesday that she will use persuasion and publicity to promote her product-safety agenda.

One of her techniques will be to praise publicly those companies and industries that voluntarily embrace such product-safety improvements as Procter & Gamble’s new packaging.

“We are not endorsing the style of the cap, we are endorsing the concept,” said Brown, who has made improving children’s safety packages for medicines and other products one of her top priorities.

Childproof caps can be so difficult to open that many people simply leave them off, she said, and most cases of poisoning today result from children ingesting material from a childproof container that was not properly closed.

Brown said she has ordered the agency staff to come up with a new approach to the problem before the end of the year.