Consumer watchdog promises new safety standards for cribs
The chairwoman of the Consumer Product Safety Commission issued a stern warning Wednesday of a crackdown on defective baby cribs, promising new federal safety standards this year.
“Now is the time to create a state-of-the-art crib standard and not let special interests hijack the process,” said Inez Tenenbaum at the annual meeting of the International Consumer Product Health and Safety Organization in Washington.
“I say no more to the tired tactic of blaming parents in the press when CPSC announces a recall that involves a death,” she said.
Tenenbaum appeared to be responding to criticism that current safety regulations do not adequately address the problems posed by drop-side cribs.
According to its website, the commission has recalled almost 7 million cribs since 2007. Six million of those had drop sides, a piece that slides down to a lower position, giving caregivers easier access to the inside of a crib.
Cribs with drop sides tend to be structurally less sound than cribs with fixed sides, making them more susceptible to problems associated with wear and tear.
Although statistics detailing the total number of deaths from crib defects were not immediately available, the commission said in December that it was aware of at least 11 deaths and 25 other incidents related to defects in Simplicity cribs sold in U.S. stores between June 2005 and January 2009.
Since December 2005, the commission has recalled 2 million Simplicity cribs.
The agency said a new database -- required by the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 -- would make consumer complaints available to the public for the first time. It is scheduled to be fully operational by March 2011.
In its final form, the website, SaferProducts.gov, would allow the public to report product incidents and access safety-related incident reports.
The website is part of the agency’s wider efforts to modernize its operations, which include a new in-house testing laboratory in Rockville, Md., projected to be ready by the last quarter of 2010.
