U.S. Customs and Border Protection Officers and CPSC Investigators Seize 200K Toy Dolls
U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers and Consumer Product Safety Commission investigators have seized more than 200,000 toy dolls arriving from China due to high levels of phthalates, a group of banned chemical compounds, according to the Department of Homeland Security. Officials seized a total of 10 shipments valued at nearly $500,000 at the ports of Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, Norfolk, Va., Memphis, Tenn., Newark, N.J., Portland, Ore., and Savannah, Ga.
The Commercial Targeting and Analysis Center targeted the shipments beginning in April because of the potential that the products presented a safety threat to the American public, particularly children, and contained items prohibited in the U.S. Although dispersed across the county, officials flagged the shipments as high risk after CTAC identified key commonalities in the hazardous products.
Since April 2010, CPSC has maintained permanent staffing at CTAC in Washington, D.C. In addition, CPSC compliance investigators are assigned to several major ports across the country and work side-by-side with CBP officers to examine shipments of potentially unsafe imported consumer products to help prevent them from reaching the hands of America’s consumers. In Fiscal Year 2012, CTAC targeting efforts resulted in the seizure of more than 1.1 million unsafe products.
The Chanler Group represents citizen enforcers who, acting in the public interest, commence actions against businesses offering products for sale in California that contain chemicals known to cause cancer or reproductive harm without first providing the health hazard warning required by Proposition 65. Citizen enforcers bringing Proposition 65 actions in the public interest may obtain a Court Judgment imposing civil penalties, an injunction requiring reformulation of products, and/or provision of health hazard warnings. The Chanler Group has represented citizen enforcers of Proposition 65 for more than twenty years.