The Consumer Product Safety Commission indicated in a 9 January press release that on-going efforts by the agency and U.S. Customs and Border Protection to be more proactive have resulted in “hundreds of millions of violative or dangerous units of products being stopped at U.S. ports and prevented from ever reaching the hands of consumers.” According to the CPSC, this collaboration has led to the seizure of more than 6.5 million units of about 1,700 different children’s products due to safety concerns or failure to meet federal safety standards. Products stopped at the border for safety violations include toys and other children’s products, mattresses, art materials, household chemicals, lighters, fireworks, bicycle helmets and all-terrain vehicles. Products are being seized for a variety of reasons, including violations of federal requirements on flammability, lead in paint and lead content, phthalates and small parts. Although this was not specifically cited in the press release, a majority of the products that are being seized at the U.S. border are likely of mainland Chinese origin.
The CPSC indicates that increased CPSC/CBP collaboration has resulted in reduced exam times and increased inter-agency communication. Goals for the future include systematically evaluating the risk of incoming shipments and expanding the number of staff inspecting merchandise. The CPSC also states that it will continue to regularly provide information to the public on the results of efforts to prevent the entry of unsafe products into the United States.
The CPSC is also working hard to ensure that domestically-produced and imported consumer products that are sold in the U.S. market are recalled in the most expeditious fashion possible if there is evidence that they may present a hazard to consumers. According to information collected from the CPSC recall database, there were 309 recalls involving 36.2 million units in calendar year 2011 that either violated mandatory standards or presented a substantial risk to the public. This is the lowest number of recalls and the lowest total number of recalled units in recent years and suggests that the numerous legislative and administrative steps taken since 2008 to improve the safety of consumer products have yielded positive results. By comparison, there were 353 recalls involving 75.9 million units in calendar year 2010, 375 recalls involving 109.5 million units in calendar year 2009, approximately 563 recalls involving 60.8 million consumer products in fiscal year 2008, some 473 recalls involving some 110 million products in FY 2007, and 471 recalls involving about 124 million products in FY 2006. The CPSC also negotiated several out of court settlements in 2011 in which 14 companies voluntarily agreed to pay US$7.6 million in civil penalties, up from nine companies and a total of US$2.7 million in 2010 but down from 30 companies and a total of US$10.0 million in 2009.
Imported products accounted for approximately 80 percent of the recalls issued in 2011 as well as 62 percent of the total number of recalled products. Imports from mainland China accounted for approximately 61 percent of all recalls issued last year, with 188 covering 16.0 million units. The U.S. followed at a distance with 61 recalls covering 13.8 million units while Taiwan ranked third with 18 recalls covering 748,244 units. The European Union as a whole ranked fourth with 13 recalls covering 1.4 million units, Vietnam ranked fifth with 11 recalls covering 1.5 million units, Mexico ranked sixth with nine recalls covering 1.2 million units and India ranked seventh with six recalls covering 148,100 units. For its part, Hong Kong was subject to a single recall covering a mere 1,440 units.
A majority of the products from mainland China that were recalled in 2011 were adult products, with a total of 111 recalls covering 9.5 million units. Seventy-seven of the 188 recalls of mainland Chinese merchandise in 2011 involved children’s products, covering 6.5 million units. By comparison, eight of the 61 recalls of U.S. products during the period of review (2.7 million units) involved children’s products while the remaining 53 recalls (11.1 million units) were adult products.
Mainland Chinese products continue to be recalled for a variety of reasons. The most common hazard among products recalled last year was the threat of fire, burns, electrocution and electrical shock, which was cited in 62 recalls involving 5.6 million units. Thirty-five recalls involving 3.1 million units were triggered by choking or suffocation hazards, 33 recalls involving 4.3 million units were issued wholly or partly as a result of laceration hazards, 25 recalls involving 1.2 million units were issued wholly or partly as a result of fall hazards, 13 recalls involving 2.2 million units were issued wholly or partly as a result of strangulation hazards, and seven recalls involving 246,000 units were issued due to excessive lead levels in metal objects or surface paint.
The most common hazards involving mainland Chinese children’s products were choking/suffocation (32 recalls involving 3.1 million units), fall (13 recalls involving 898,945 units), laceration (12 recalls involving 524,000 units), strangulation (nine recalls involving 2.2 million units), excessive lead content (six recalls involving 245,000 units) and burn/fire (five recalls involving 101,250 units). Mainland Chinese children’s products recalled as a result of a choking or suffocation hazard in 2011 included toys, slippers, sandals, socks, dresses and other apparel, costumes, rattles, pacifier clips, strollers and playpens. Recalls for excessive lead in metal items or surface paint involved such products as toys, tennis rackets, travel cases, label pins and jewellery kits.
Safety issues that caught the eye of the CPSC in 2011 included in particular the severe burn hazard posed by firepots and gel fuels and the failure of certain children’s loungewear to comply with the federal flammability standard for sleepwear. The CPSC issued 11 recalls involving 2.5 million gel fuel bottles and cans and it recently initiated a rulemaking process to address the safety risk associated with these products. Only two of these recalls affected mainland Chinese products while ten recalls involved gel fuels made in the United States. The CPSC could potentially ban these products, issue a mandatory or voluntary standard, issue a mandatory labelling rule or take no regulatory action. On the issue of children’s loungewear, the CPSC issued 23 December 2011 a letter reminding manufacturers, distributors, importers and retailers that it views children’s loungewear and other similar garments marketed as comfort wear as garments worn primarily for sleep-related activities that must comply with the applicable flammability standards. The CPSC warned that it will take enforcement action against companies that market loungewear items that do not comply with these standards, including the issuance of fines of up to US$100,000 for each violation not to exceed a maximum of US$15.15 million as well as injunctive action, the seizure of violative products and imprisonment for up to five years.
Also in 2011 the CPSC designated hand-supported hair dryers without integral immersion protection and certain children’s upper outerwear garments with drawstrings as substantial product hazards. The CPSC issued a total of eight recalls involving 34,426 units of children’s outerwear apparel that did not comply with the current standards for drawstrings, down markedly from 32 recalls involving 393,045 units in 2010. Five of the eight recalls issued in 2011 for this safety hazard involved mainland Chinese products, compared to 23 of the 32 recalls issued in 2010. In addition, new mandatory safety standards for full-size and non-full-size baby cribs entered into force on 28 June 2011 but the CPSC still issued seven recalls (three affecting mainland China) involving 53,370 unsafe cribs last year, compared to 18 recalls (16 affecting mainland China) involving 3.9 million unsafe cribs in 2010.
Other safety concerns raised by the CPSC in 2011 included the inadvertent ingestion of button cell batteries by young children and senior adults, pool and spa covers that do not comply with applicable federal standards, water walking balls that may pose suffocation and drowning hazards, and safety hazards associated with table saws.
On the other hand, safety issues that have attracted heightened scrutiny in recent years such as excessive lead content in children’s products have fallen a bit off the radar, likely due to greatly improved compliance by U.S. importers and overseas producers. The CPSC did not recall any products last year due to excessive cadmium content but is still considering the possibility of designating any toy metal jewellery containing more than trace amounts of cadmium as a banned hazardous substance. In November 2011 ASTM International approved a new voluntary standard (ASTM F2923) regulating cadmium levels in children’s jewellery and CPSC staff will have to assess the adequacy of such standard, decide whether there is substantial compliance with the standard and make a recommendation by 16 June on any additional restrictions. There were also no recalls in 2011 of toys with small magnets that could be swallowed or aspirated by children, which could pose serious health problems and even death, but the CPSC warned last November that 14 incidents involving magnetic toys were reported during January-October 2011. This means that a significant number of hazardous magnetic toys remain in the hands of consumers despite numerous recalls and repeated warnings in recent years.
