The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) issued a press release on December 2nd, stating that it prevented a total of 6.1 million non-compliant or dangerous consumer products from entering the U.S. market during the first half of fiscal year 2013 (October 1, 2012 to March 31, 2013). The CPSC used a pilot targeting system based on risk assessment methodologies to analyze data provided by U.S. Customs and Border Protection to identify high-risk consumer goods and determine which shipments to inspect.
In collaboration with Customs and Border Protection, the CPSC inspected 12,435 imported products in the first half of fiscal year 2013, determining that 678 of them did not comply with federal mandatory consumer product safety regulations or were not safe for public use.
Of the seized non-compliant products, children's products accounted for 86.7% (588 out of 678 types), while by item count, they accounted for only 19.7% (1,201,922 out of 6,095,106 items). The remainder were non-children's products.
Of the 588 children's products seized by authorities, 335, or 57.0%, had excessive lead content. 56, or 9.5%, contained banned phthalates; 48, or 8.2%, lacked traceability labels; and 32 (5.4%) were toys and other products with non-compliant small parts. Other violations included failure to comply with applicable packaging material regulations, durable childcare regulations, and regulations regarding the use of drawstrings in children's clothing.
Among the non-children's products intercepted for violating product safety regulations, the largest number were festive lights, accounting for 25.6%; followed by substandard cigarettes and lighters (18.9%). Fireworks and hair dryers were third (each accounting for 16.7%), with others including cooking appliances, lighting products, electric fans, and portable lamps.
During the same period, of the 644,986 products intercepted for violating a mandatory federal security standard, as many as 597,200 were manufactured in mainland China, accounting for 92.6% of the total; 3.2% (20,952) were manufactured in Taiwan, 0.8% (5,220) were manufactured in India, and 0.4% (2,500) were manufactured in Hong Kong.
These mainland Chinese products, intercepted for violating mandatory federal safety standards, generally fail to meet at least two, and sometimes three or four, requirements. The most common violations include non-compliance with requirements for children's product traceability labeling, third-party certification, children's product lead content standards, mandatory phthalate limits, mandatory standards for small parts, lead content certification requirements, and general conformity certification requirements. Other violations include non-compliance with mandatory requirements regarding small part certification, paint lead content, and packaging material labeling, as well as safety standards regarding bells.
As for the intercepted Hong Kong products, they generally do not meet the requirements for lead content, third-party certification, and traceability labeling for children's products.
The data above shows that non-compliance with mandatory traceability labeling remains the primary violation by mainland exporters. For consumer products manufactured on or after August 14, 2009, primarily intended for children aged 12 and under, manufacturers must affix traceability labels or other prominent permanent markings so that manufacturers, retailers, and consumers can identify the product's manufacturer or brand owner, production location and date, and batch information. There is no uniform system for displaying traceability information; the CPSC only requires manufacturers to determine and adopt the markings most suitable for their business and products. According to the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) passed in August 2011, the CPSC can exempt certain products or product categories from traceability labeling requirements for those that are difficult to affix, and sets separate labeling regulations for exempted products.
US law stipulates that the lead content in products designed for children aged 12 or under must be capped at 100 parts per million (ppm). The Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) stipulates that the lead content in the surface coatings of furniture, toys, and other children's products, calculated by weight of the non-volatile content of the paint or the weight of the dry paint film, must not exceed 90 ppm. The CPSIA further prohibits the sale and import of children's toys and childcare products containing concentrations exceeding 0.1% of di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP), dibutyl phthalate (DBP), or butyl paraben phthalate (BBP). This law also temporarily prohibits the sale and import of children's toys and childcare products containing concentrations exceeding 0.1% of diisononyl phthalate (DINP), diisodecyl phthalate (DIDP), or dioctyl phthalate (DnOP) that can be put into a child's mouth, until the final version is announced.
The failure of many U.S. importers to comply with mandatory third-party certification requirements for children's products is also noteworthy. U.S. law requires that manufacturers or importers of products regulated by any CPSC regulations or standards must provide a certificate specifying the applicable CPSC regulations for the product and a declaration that the product complies with those regulations. Certificates for non-children's products must be based on test results for each individual product; certificates for children's products must be based on test results conducted by a CPSC-accredited third-party laboratory.
U.S. law stipulates that toys intended for children under 3 years old must not contain small parts that pose a choking, inhalation, or swallowing risk. Small parts are defined as objects that can completely fit into a 2.25-inch long and 1.25-inch wide test cylinder (approximately the size of a fully expanded larynx of a child under 3 years old). Under the Child Safety Act and its implementing regulations, toys intended for children aged 3 to under 6 years old must bear a warning label if they contain small parts that pose a choking risk.
On November 19, Customs and Border Protection announced the interception of over 200,000 Chinese-made toy dolls with excessive phthalate content. During the operation, customs officials intercepted 10 shipments at multiple U.S. ports, totaling nearly $500,000. According to the agency, the Import Safety Commercial Targeting and Analysis Center (CTAC) had been targeting these shipments since April 2013 because the products posed a safety threat to U.S. consumers, particularly children.
Former CPSC Chairman Inez Tenenbaum stated that the CPSC uses a risk management system to identify goods most likely to contain dangerous products, while safe products are cleared quickly.
Sources: Hong Kong Trade Development Council (2013-12-13)
