Crib recalls highlight lack of durability standards

You'd think that all cribs would provide a safe and comfortable environment for babies. But over the last three years, there have been more than one and a half million full-sized cribs recalled, many due to failures of the hardware or of the wooden slats and spindles. Those structural failures can result in serious strangulation, entrapment and fall hazards. The defects contribute to the more than 11,000 serious crib and mattress-related injuries each year and an annual average of 32 fatalities for children under five. There are far more deaths associated with cribs and mattresses than with any other type of nursery product and 25 percent of those deaths resulted from the use of cribs with broken or missing components.

Although cribs are regulated by the Consumer Product Safety Commission, there are no federally mandated durability test requirements. ASTM-International, a standard-setting organization, publishes a more comprehensive standard with which most manufacturers voluntarily comply. However, while the ASTM standard requires durability testing of the mattress supports and the crib side rails, it does not require testing for the strength of the spindles or slats or for the failure or loosening of drop-side hardware that can come as a result of repeated use. ASTM has been working on improving its standard to include tests for structural integrity of the crib slats and hardware, but has little to show for its many years of work on this problem.

The consequences of weak standards? Recalls, including the largest crib recall in history. Last year, Simplicity recalled more than one million cribs because of drop-side failures resulting from both the hardware and crib design. This year Babies ‘R' Us recalled 320,000 of its Jardine cribs because the slats and spindles could break too easily. Both the Simplicity and Jardine cribs met the federal regulations and the current ASTM safety and performance standards for cribs, which as we noted above, do not go far enough.

Impatient with ASTM's lack of progress, Toys ‘R' Us, the owner of Babies ‘R' Us, has just established its own standards for crib durability. Beginning October 1, an outside laboratory will be testing for structural integrity employing the stronger test methods currently used in Europe and Canada. Cribs supplied to Babies ‘R' Us retailers must meet certain design and material requirements for the wooden slats and spindles.

The U.S. Senate has also expressed concern about the lack of adequate durability test requirements.  Earlier this summer, the Senate Committee on Financial Services and General Government included a measure in a funding bill directing the CPSC to consider promulgating regulations that require cribs to be durability-tested.  Reviewing and updating of the federal crib standard is required under the new Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act and we hope that the CPSC makes a new, stronger crib safety standard—with the most comprehensive durability standards—one of its immediate priorities.

In addition, we offer this advice to consumers:

• Do not buy or use cribs made before 2000. They do not meet even today's lenient safety standards.
• If you are thinking about buying a model sold at  Toys ‘R' Us,  you might want to consider waiting until after October when new standards take effect.
• Buy cribs that are certified by the Juvenile Products Manufacturers Association (JPMA) to meet ASTM standards. Although this is no guarantee of safety, we have more confidence in cribs that have JPMA certification labels.
• If you are not mechanically skilled, have an expert assemble your crib. Make sure assembly instructions are followed exactly.
• Check for and tighten any loose hardware on a monthly basis. And do not use any crib with broken or missing hardware or components.
• Make sure the mattress fits snugly inside the crib with no gaps around its perimeter in which a baby can get trapped.
• Do not use any soft bedding in a crib including bumper pads, comforters, pillows, sleep positioners, and so on. They can create a suffocation hazard.
• Fill out and mail in product registration cards. That way, a company will be able to contact you directly in the event of a recall.
• Read our latest report on cribs.