Child-Resistant Packaging: Balancing Child Safety with Senior Accessibility

With many varieties of pharmaceutical packaging and lifestyle product packaging, there’s a need for child-resistant packaging for the safety of end users and to meet industry regulations. However, the design of child-resistant packaging presents a challenge. It must be difficult for children to open, but accessible enough for adults. However, this can present challenges with senior users and those with physical impairments, which manufacturers need to consider while designing packaging that effectively protects against children.

In this blog, we discuss the importance of combining child-resistance with accessible packaging design and the innovative products that we provide at Origin that do so.

Why Child-Resistant Packaging Matters

Child-resistant packaging is a vital type of packaging used within many industries, including medical cannabis packaging, controlled substance packaging, pharmacy packaging, vape packaging, and many more. As a result of the health risk that the ingestion of these packaging’s contents can pose, it’s essential that it’s secure enough against children while remaining accessible for adults.

The most common childproof mechanisms that are used are:

• Push-and-turn caps
• Squeeze-and-pull closures
• Locking tabs
• Multi-step opening systems

These designs ensure that children have difficulty opening them while being openable for adults. These are often designed to meet ISO 8317:2015, which is an international standard that ensures that packaging prevents children aged between 42 and 51 months from opening it while remaining accessible to adults (typically between ages 50 and 70).

However, while these are usually accessible for a large number of adults, they can present difficulties for certain consumers as described below.

Keeping Child-Resistant Packaging Accessible

Though child-resistant packaging is generally accessible for adults, there are still some barriers for some consumers. Those who struggle with strength, mobility, or coordination can find certain child-resistant closures difficult or even impossible to use independently. For example, older adults, arthritis sufferers, and visually impaired individuals may not be able to open child-resistant packaging as easily as others.

As a result, this poses a challenge for packaging manufacturers. Packaging that’s too easy to open may fail to meet safety regulations, while overly complex packaging risks preventing the intended users from using products. 

With populations ageing and inclusivity becoming a greater focus across industries, accessible packaging design is becoming increasingly important and is calling for forward-thinking approaches to prevent this paradox. 

Balancing Child-Resistance with Senior Friendliness

To make packaging for potentially hazardous substances inaccessible to children but accessible to all adults, packaging manufacturers are continually developing new methods and features. This way, seniors are able to continue using child-resistant packaging that remains effective in deterring children and is compliant with industry standards.

Some of these newer innovations that can be seen within child-resistant packaging, which packaging manufacturers such as Origin are developing and adopting, include:

• Ergonomic grip designs
• Textured surfaces for improved handling
• Audible clicking 
• Larger tabs and buttons
• Clearer instructions
• More intuitive locking systems

With these forward-thinking designs and continuing developments, child-resistant packaging is becoming increasingly accessible for all while ensuring children remain completely protected.

Child-Resistant, Accessible Packaging at Origin

At Origin, we produce a wide range of child-resistant packaging that bears these two essential aspects in mind. All of our packaging choices deter children from accessing them while being accessible to all adults, and we’re constantly innovating with our design choices to do so.

For instance, our ClicCan® nicotine pouch can is designed to be accessible to all. This can is difficult for children to open, while having three different user-friendly mechanisms for opening. It can be opened by turning to align the visible indicators, listening for the absence of clicking when turned, and feeling for the absence of knurling when turning. This way, all adults, including those with visual impairments and limited dexterity, can access its contents.

To find out more about our innovative packaging and how it can provide both protection and convenience for your customers, our expert team will be happy to discuss our products in further depth when you contact us.

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