Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) Patrols Borders For Unsafe Products

In cooperation with border patrol officials, the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) has stopped millions of dangerous products from entering the United States.

In the last two years alone, such efforts have yielded more than 6.5 million units of 1,700 different children’s products due to safety concerns and violations of standards. Chairman Inez Tenenbaum has reinforced her commitment to CPSC’s main mission of “[i]ntercepting dangerous products as quickly and as early as possible, well before they make their way into the hands of children and other consumers,” consistent with the vision for CPSC to “continue enhancing its protection of America’s families”.
The offending products have been varied in type and function, including mattresses, art materials, lighters screened for flammability, children’s items with lead content, and more. While port surveillance is not a new tactic for border patrol security, CPSC’s enhanced role has steadily increased the size and effect of its operations in the past few years. “The marketplace of imported consumer goods has expanded rapidly in recent years requiring CPSC to take an increasingly global view of consumer product safety,” claims the director of the office of import surveillance and inspection, Carol Cave. The CPSC has provided training and equipment that has proven very helpful in identifying the non-compliant products before they make their way across US borders and into the streams of commerce.
Many tragic deaths and serious injuries could be avoided if corporations became more attentive to preventive engineering and consumer education. Too often, manufacturers pour money into self-serving public relations campaigns, rather than into efforts for further protection of the consumers who use their products.
If you or a family member has suffered significant personal injuries, or if a loved one has suffered wrongful death as the result of a dangerous product, contact the law office of Swartz & Swartz, P.C. Call (617) 742-1900 in the Boston area, or for clients in greater Massachusetts, New England, or other states across the U.S., call toll-free at 1-800-545-3732. Our product liability attorneys are here to answer your questions and protect your legal rights.
By James A. Swartz of Swartz & Swartz, P.C. – Permalink