Every 60 minutes, a child is treated in a hospital emergency department for injuries related to a furniture tip-over. And between 2000 and 2019, 351 people of all ages were killed following a furniture tip-over incident; children account for 286 of those fatalities. As part of Consumer Reports’ ongoing investigation into this danger, we’ve tested dressers to see which are most stable and which fail our evaluations, talked with industry and government experts to understand why the problem persists, and met with parents whose children were killed, to explore the human toll of these tragedies. Find out what you can do to protect your family now, and how the system needs to change to make products safer in the future.
Last Updated: Aug. 2, 2021
Unstable Dressers: A Potentially Deadly Danger
Right now, dressers sold in the U.S. are not governed by a mandatory stability standard. Furniture manufacturers operate under a voluntary standard, and they are not required to conduct any safety testing before putting a dresser on the market. Some manufacturers meet the standard, and others fall short, contributing to thousands of emergency room visits each year. To shine a light on this problem, Consumer Reports tested 42 dressers representing a cross-section of the market. See what CR’s testing revealed and hear from Janet McGee, whose son died when an Ikea dresser tipped over onto him.
