-----------NEWS from CPSC-----------
U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission
Office of Communications
4330 East West Highway, Bethesda, MD 20814, www.cpsc.gov
Release Date: July 26, 2013
Release Number: 13-251
Port Surveillance News: More than 4.8M Units of Violative Imported Products Kept at Bay During Fiscal Year 2012
WASHINGTON, D.C.--The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) ended fiscal year 2012 having stopped a total of about 4.8 million units of products that violated U.S. safety rules or were found to be hazardous during the fiscal year, which spanned October 2011 to September 2012.
Working with its federal partner, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), CPSC screened more than 18,000 different imported consumer products during the fiscal year. About 1,500 of those products were found to be violative and prevented from moving into the U.S. stream of commerce.
CPSC investigators and CBP officers closed out the fiscal year with fourth quarter efforts on pace with those of the third quarter. In the fourth quarter 2012, the agencies screened about 5,900 products and identified about 410 of the screened products as being noncompliant with CPSC's safety rules. In the third quarter, about 5,700 products were screened and about 420 were identified as violative.
The number of units stopped in the final quarter of the fiscal year was about 910,000, down from a high of about 2.8 million in the third quarter, but more than double the approximately 368,000 stopped in the second quarter. The high numbers of units stopped in the third quarter are attributed to shipments of fireworks imported for the Memorial Day and Independence Day holidays.
As in the previous fiscal quarters, children's products with lead levels exceeding federal limits continued to make up the bulk of products stopped in the fourth quarter of 2012. Toys and other articles with small parts that present a choking hazard for children younger than 3 years old and toys and child care articles with phthalate levels in excess of federal limits were also product categories with a high number of seizures.
CPSC has been screening products at ports since the agency began operating in 1973. The agency intensified its efforts in 2008 with the creation of an import surveillance division and again in 2011 with the creation of the Office of Import Surveillance.
The Import Stoppage Report and the table of Violative Products Seized at the Port during 4th Quarter, FY 2012 are available at http://www.cpsc.gov/en/Newsroom/News-Releases/2013/More-than-48M-Units-of-Violative-Imported-Products-Kept-at-Bay-During-Fiscal-Year-2012/.
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