Child-resistant packaging is packaging that is difficult for a child younger than 52 months to open (or gain access to the contents) in a reasonable period but not difficult for an adult — up to and including seventy years old — to use properly.
These packs may be split into reclosable and non-reclosable and each may use one of a variety of ways to achieve child resistance. A reclosable pack defined by the international standard BS EN ISO 8317:2004 is “ (A) package which, after it has been initially opened, is capable of being reclosed with a similar degree of security and is capable of being used a sufficient number of times to dispense the total contents without loss of security.”
Reclosable packs employ a number of different methods to ensure child resistance. All are based on the fact that children younger than 52 months are unable to accomplish two simultaneous actions. The three most popular child resistant mechanisms are, push and turn, a two-piece moulding that has the added advantage of presenting the child with a false affordance. Squeeze and turn packs, usually single piece mouldings are extremely popular for household products. Finally, ‘line up the arrows’ packaging, where two fixed points on the container and closure must be aligned for the pack to open. All reclosable child resistant packs consist of a container and closure, in other words the complete pack. Hence there are child resistant packs but never child resistant closures or child resistant containers.
A non-reclosable child-resistant pack is defined by the European standard BS EN 14375:2003 as: “ (A) child resistant package or part of a child resistant package which, when all or part of the contents have been removed, cannot be properly closed again.” Typical non-reclosable packs are blister and strip packs, popular for packaging medicines and single use household products. Blister packs consist of a polymer tray whose open side is sealed to aluminium lidding foil during the filling process. Designing child resistance into a non-reclosable pack is usually accomplished by making opening a two step process for example, ‘peel and push’ or using a paper label, impervious to children’s soft fingernails, which is applied to the lidding foil.
Child resistant packaging is invariably made from plastic or has a high plastic content. Reclosable packs may include a glass container and blister packs often incorporate aluminium foil and paper lidding material; however plastic, PP, HDPE, LDPE or PVC are the major materials used. Hence this type of packaging is important to the plastics industry.