The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission have proposed new rules for cribs due to 36 deaths associated with crib structural problems between November 2007 and April 2010. Serious safety hazards have ranged from drop-side hardware or entrapment issues to breakage of the crib slats. These risk suffocation and falls. CPSC staff is working to finalize the proposed crib standards change in 2010, likely to go into effect next year. Drop-side cribs will most likely be eliminated entirely and better mattress support and sturdier hardware will be mandatory.
The CPSC Chairman Inez Tenenbaum’s statement to the commission was definitive:
“A crib should be the safest place for an infant or toddler to sleep. For too long, and for too many young children, this has not been the case…The fatal and near fatal incidents resulting from crib failures made it abundantly clear to me and to CPSC that now is the time for new mandatory standards to address these risks.”
Comments are closed.