Working in conjunction with the United States Customs and Border Protection, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission has stopped almost 650,000 dangerous products from entering the country to be sold to consumers. This was in the first quarter of the fiscal year of 2012 alone. The first quarter goes from October 1, 2011 to December 31, 2011.
Many of the products they prevented from entering the country were children’s toys found to contain lead that exceeded the federal limits for safety. In fact, there were more children’s products barred from entering the country than any other type of product. In addition to the threat of lead poisoning, banned phthalates prompted the removal of many items, as did the presence of small parts that children can ingest and choke on.
Typically, tests on a shipment’s product quality involved the usage of an x-ray fluorescence analyzer, or else what’s known as use and abuse testing. A total of 2,900 shipments were screened by the CPSC and CBP, and some other items that were denied entry include holiday lights, dangerous lamps, and faulty hair dryers. Throughout 2011, the numbers were even more impressive, with 4.5 million units prevented from going onto store shelves.
As a personal injury lawyer in Fresno, I applaud any organizations’ efforts to make store shelves safer for consumers across the country. Although I know that it might be impossible to fully eradicate the threat of a defect from every single product there is, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try. Eventually, it’s my hope as a Los Angeles personal injury attorney that products are so safe that they don’t need oversight.