Two shipments of children's Halloween pirate costumes were recently seized for containing 11 times the legal limit of lead.

The shipments originated in China and were destined for a distributor in the Seattle area.


Two-hundred-twenty-nine cartons containing 1,371 retail units valued at more than $10,000 were seized by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers and Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) investigators.

CBP staff targeted the shipments for intensive examination, and took samples which were submitted to the CPSC. When CPSC tested the samples, it found that buttons on the pirate costumes contained 1,109 parts per million (ppm) of lead. The acceptable level is just 100 ppm.


The shipments of lead-contaminated costumes will be destroyed.