Trump Regulators Allow Sales Of Baby-Killing Chairs

Trump Regulators Allow Sales Of Baby-Killing Chairs

Reprinted with permission from DCReport.

 

Manufacturers of high chairs that killed two children and injured an estimated 49,900 infants and toddlers from 2011 to 2016 will have another year to sell the baby-killing product to unsuspecting parents, thanks to our nation’s agency that is supposed to protect consumers.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission, which is being stacked by Trump appointees, voted unanimously to give companies a year to comply with the new standards.

“The implementation date only refers to the date of manufacture, so it will be well over a year before consumers can be sure the product meets this new standard—a whole year of new babies missing out,” said Nancy Cowles, executive director of Kids In Danger. “We always look for a shorter implementation time to get the safer products to consumers faster.”

The commission unanimously approved the voluntary standard requiring high chairs to be more stable, have restraint systems and carry warning labels. Common accidents included falls when the child tried to climb into or out of the high chair, the chair tipping over or a restraint, tray or lock on the chair failing.

A 2008 law, the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act, requires the commission to set safety standards for infant and toddler products. The commission has set safety standards for cribs, baby bath seats, strollers and toddler beds but has yet to set standards for booster seats, changing tables and gates. The section of the law that requires these standards is named after Danny Keysar who strangled to death in 1998 when a portable crib collapsed.

Babies and toddlers are top-heavy with big heads compared to the rest of their bodies and tend to fall headfirst. They are also less able than older children to use their arms to break their falls.

A 2013 study published in Clinical Pediatrics found that concussions and internal injuries were among the most common injuries from high chairs. About 3.1% of children in the study were injured seriously enough to be hospitalized.

Since 2015, 48,500 high chairs from three companies have been recalled because of the risk of falls, the most recent in January when Skip Hop Inc. recalled high chairs because the front legs could detach from the seat.

Fifty-nine firms supply high chairs to the U.S. market. About 7 million high chairs are being used.

Advertising

Start your day with National Memo Newsletter

Know first.

The opinions that matter. Delivered to your inbox every morning

Remembering A Great American: Edwin Fancher, 1923-2023

Norman Mailer, seated, Ed Fancher and Dan Wolf, founders of The Village Voice

If you are lucky in your life, you come to know one or two people who made you who you are other than your parents who gave you the extraordinary gift of life. Edwin Fancher, who it is my sad duty to inform you died last Wednesday in his apartment on Gramercy Park at the age of 100, is one such person in my life. He was one of the three founders of The Village Voice, the Greenwich Village weekly that became known as the nation’s first alternative newspaper. The Voice, and he, were so much more than that.

Keep reading...Show less
How Is That Whole 'Law And Order' Thing Working Out For You, Republicans?

Former Georgia Republican Party chair David Shafer

One of the great ironies – and there are more than a few – in the case in Georgia against Donald Trump and 18 co-defendants is the law being used against them: The Georgia RICO, or Racketeering and Corrupt Organizations Act. The original RICO Act, passed by Congress in 1970, was meant to make it easier for the Department of Justice to go after crimes committed by the Mafia and drug dealers. The first time the Georgia RICO law was used after it was passed in 1980 was in a prosecution of the so-called Dixie Mafia, a group of white criminals in the South who engaged in crimes of moving stolen goods and liquor and drug dealing.

Keep reading...Show less
{{ post.roar_specific_data.api_data.analytics }}