Children’s furniture tied deaths
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The number of children who have recently died because of accidents involving recalled furniture and children’s products reached its highest point in seventeen years. The industry journal, Furniture Today, reported that the children’s consumer safety group, known as KID, or Kids In Danger, has followed the data generated by these tragic incidents and arrived at its conclusion that 2019 was the deadliest year of the last seventeen for children. KID calculated that 37 children died in 2019 while resting in inclined sleepers, which have now been recalled by the Consumer Product Safety Commission, or CPSC, and the remaining child died when a recalled South Shore Libra set of drawers fell upon the child.
According to the study by KID, the CPSC recalled 58 lines of children’s products, which represents 24 percent of the total number of consumer products recalled by the CPSC. In 2018, about 20 percent of all consumer products recalled were children’s goods.
These numbers are scarcely the amount of children’s consumer products recalled in previous years. The total number of children’s consumer products recalled, 58, is the fewest number of products recalled in the previous nine years. Also, 2018 had the lowest percentage of children’s products recalled out of the prior seven years.
Clothing storage units, such as chests of drawers, were recalled more than any other children’s consumer product last year, beside inclined sleepers. No fewer than six brands of children’s furniture were recalled in 2019. By contrast, no children’s furniture was recalled in 2018.
The total number of recalled units was higher in 2019 than in previous years. Approximately 13.8 million units were subject to recall in 2019. Only 2.3 million individual units were recalled in 2018, and 11.8 million pieces were recalled in 2017.
Many children’s products manufacturers elected to recall their products using the CPSC “Fast-Track” program. The CPSC’s Fast-Track recall program allows companies to act faster and recall dangerous products rapidly. Notwithstanding, the federal government needed to pass two new laws that will help further protect children’s lives and well-being.
