Government Says to Avoid Hodedah Dresser, Citing Safety Risk
Despite company’s failure to recall the H14DR 4-drawer dresser, consumers should stop using it
The Consumer Product Safety Commission warned consumers today to avoid the Hodedah HI4DR four-drawer dresser after it failed the agency’s safety tests. The CPSC said that the dresser “is unstable and can tip over if not anchored to the wall, posing serious tip-over and entrapment hazards that can result in injuries to children or even death.”
The CPSC had asked Hodedah to recall the products, but the company failed to do so and the agency can’t force companies to recall products without taking them to court. The agency issued this warning and said it would continue to press the company for a recall.
The dressers, sold online at Amazon.com, HomeDepot.com, Sears.com, and Walmart.com for between $100 and $200, are about 40 inches tall, 27.5 inches wide, and 15.5 inches deep. The dresser that CPSC tested weighed about 75 pounds without any clothing in the drawers.
Need for Strong Standards
One child dies about every two weeks and one person is injured about every 15 minutes when a piece of furniture or a television falls onto them, according to the CPSC. Thousands of those incidents each year involve dressers.
While the government testing and the revised safety standard are positive steps, CR’s safety experts have long said that the current standard isn’t tough enough to prevent tip-over injuries and deaths. They and others would like additional improvements to the standard that more accurately reflect the weight of a young child and the way people use dressers.
“The CPSC needs strong rules in place to protect children in the real world,” Wallace says. “That means stability tests that use at least 60 pounds of weight and account for more than one drawer being open at a time.”
The U.S. Senate is currently considering legislation, already passed by the House of Representatives, called the Stop Tip-overs of Unstable, Risky Dressers on Youth (STURDY) Act, which would require the CPSC to create a mandatory federal rule for dressers that’s tougher than the industry’s current voluntary standard.
