BALTIMORE — U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents, teaming with the Consumer Products Safety Commission, seized nearly 2,000 packages of children’s toys that were bound for Harrisburg after determining that parts of toys posed a potential choking hazard, the agencies announced Thursday in a press release.
The toys, valued at more than $5,600, were shipped from Hong Kong, the release said. Baltimore CBP officers examined the shipment and sent samples to the CPSC for testing.
The CPSC determined that the toys violated the small parts requirement of the Federal Hazardous Substances Act, and ordered the toys seized.
According to the CPSC, there were an estimated 240,000 toy-related injuries treated in U.S. hospital emergency departments during 2016, and an estimated 85,200 (35 percent) of those cases happened to children younger than five years of age.
“As the nation’s border security agency, Customs and Border Protection enforces hundreds of laws for many different agencies, including laws governing consumer safety. It’s one way in which CBP contributes to helping to keep Americans safe,” said Casey Owen Durst, CBP’s Field Operations Director in Baltimore, the agency’s operational commander in the Mid-Atlantic region.
