The Consumer Product Safety Commission says that its stepped up efforts to be more proactive have resulted in hundreds of millions of violative or dangerous products being stopped at U.S. ports and prevented from ever reaching the hands of consumers. CPSC notes that about 1,700 different children's products were stopped at U.S. ports in 2010 and 2011, and that non-children’s products are also being targeted.

The Department of Agriculture's Commodity Credit Corporation has announced that Special Import Quota #21 for upland cotton was established on January 12, 2012, allowing importation of 14,594,057 kilograms (67,030 bales) of upland cotton. It will apply to upland cotton purchased not later than April 10, 2012, and entered into the U.S. not later than July 9, 2012. The quota is equivalent to one week's consumption of cotton by domestic mills at the seasonally-adjusted average rate for the period May 2011 through July 2011, the most recent three months for which data are available.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission published notice of the following additional voluntary recalls for January 5, 2012:

The Consumer Product Safety Commission published notice of the following voluntary recall for January 5, 2012:

The Consumer Product Safety Commission has announced its weekly meeting on January 11, 2012 in which the staff briefs the Commission on the status of various compliance matters. The meeting is closed to the public, and the agenda is confidential.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission is reopening the comment period on its first petition for a “functional purpose” exemption from the 100 parts per million lead content limit for children’s products, a new exemption provided for by Public Law 112-28, which was enacted in August 2011. The petition concerns certain ride-on pedal tractors sized for children. CPSC states that it is reopening the comment period until February 4, 2012 as it has learned that it inadvertently omitted a part of the petition, which is now available in its entirety here.

This is a reminder that comments are due January 23, 2012 on the Consumer Product Safety Commission's notice on ways to reduce the cost of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) third party testing requirements for children’s products that are consistent with assuring compliance with any applicable consumer product safety rule, ban, standard, or regulation. Based on the comments received, CPSC may prescribe new or revised third-party testing regulations.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission published notice of the following voluntary recalls for January 3-4, 2012:

The Federal Trade Commission has extended until February 2, 2012 (from January 3, 2012) its due date for comments on its Textile Rules, which require that textiles sold in the U.S. carry labels disclosing the generic names and percentages by weight of the fibers in the product, the manufacturer or marketer name, and the country where the product was processed or manufactured.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission published notice of the following voluntary recalls for December 28-29, 2011: