Traditional Drop-Side Cribs Banned by the Government Due to Safety Problems

• Date: December 21, 2010
• Source: Admin

The U.S Consumer Products Safety Commission (CPSC) unanimously voted the ban of the sale, resale, and manufacture of all drop-side cribs that have a side rail that moves up and down, allowing parents to easily lift their child from the crib. This follows years of deaths and injuries to the scale of around 32 infant deaths and several injuries in addition to the recall of more than 9 million cribs, all relating to the gap between the mattress and rail in such cribs. The gap poses potential danger to babies/toddlers who could get stuck, fall out, or suffocate. Users are required to replace defective cribs by the end of 2011. The new standard comes into effect in June, requiring cribs to have fixed sides.

Public accommodations such as hotels and childcare facilities are expected to comply to the ban within 12 months. The mandate of the ban is to stop drop-side cribs’ sale by June 2011.

The traditional crib that cradled millions of babies for generations has finally ended.

The new standard

The ban has received the approval of ASTM International, a globally recognized leader in the development and delivery of international voluntary consensus standards. ASTM standards are used around the world to improve product quality, enhance safety, facilitate market access and trade, and build consumer confidence.

The Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA), signed into law in August of 2008, requires the agency to issue mandatory standards for infant durable products. The CPSIA requires mandatory standards and testing for durable infant and toddler products, product registration cards and a ban on the sale or lease of unsafe cribs. Cribs are among the first products for which mandatory standards were promulgated under this provision.

The mandate of the new standard expects compliance through tougher safety testing for cribs, using child mimicking in the crib. As the child gets older, more force can be applied to the crib through shaking it, running around it, or jumping up and down. The new tests’ goal is to ensure that cribs can withstand the different kinds of pressure.

Additional requirements include better labeling to reduce the instances of wrong assembly, a problem that a few have encountered.

Source

http://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/2010/12/16/cpsc-bans-drop-cribs/

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40678788/ns/health-kids_and_parenting/

http://www.astm.org/ABOUT/aboutASTM.html

http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2010/12/world-s-toughest-crib-standards-adopted.html