Child Proof Packaging – An Overview

Childproof packaging has grown rapidly since they were first introduced more than five decades ago. The locking closure commonly found on prescription bottles and over-the-counter medications was invented in 1967. Fifty years later, packaging companies have developed innovative child-resistant packaging that gives manufacturers better options to package their products and stay compliant with federal regulations. 

Shortly after this discovery. the United States passed the 1970 poison prevention packaging law. Although initially enforced by the FDA, the jurisdiction was transferred in 1973 to the US consumer product safety commission. Today child-resistant packaging comes in a variety of designs and different levels of complexity when it comes to unsealing the package. You can find customized child-resistant pouches and child proof zipper bags on https://copackinc.com/flexible-packaging/child-resistant-packaging.

History of child-resistant packaging through scholarly articles and internet blogs both show Dr Breault may not have been the first to invent a cap that keeps children’s little hands at bay. In the mid-1980s, a group of archaeologists from the University of Texas at San Antonio traveled to Guatemala to investigate the Rio Azul ruins. What they found on the site built in 500 BCE was a bottle they had a hard time opening. 

Whether the idea originated from Dr. Breault or the Mayans, the invention of the modern-day “Palm-and-Turn” cap has saved many children’s lives. In his home of Ontario, they saw a 25 percent drop in child poisonings. That invention and the innovative designs that came after it is one of the “best-documented successes in preventing the unintentional poisoning of children,” according to The World Health Organization and UNICEF’s World Report on Child Injury Prevention.