Rule Proposed to Ban Crib Bumpers

Crib bumper recall

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), according to PRN Newswire, announced that it unanimously voted to move initiatives designed to prevent children from suffocating in their beds due to bumper pillows to the rulemaking stage. The CPSC will announce proposed federal regulations in the near future and open the formal comment period before the proposal becomes a federal regulation. As it stands at this time, the proposed rules would prevent the sale of pillow-style, padded bumpers that restrict airflow. The rule would establish minimum requirements for airflow. Fully padded bumper pads can cause suffocation if the child rolls up against it.

There is no federally-mandated standard for crib bumpers in the U.S. Child furniture makers voluntarily comply with the “ASTM” standard currently. Thus, the CPSC saw a need to compel compliance with appropriate guidelines by passing a rule with more stringent requirements for airflow with the hopes that the number of children suffocating in their cribs will be reduced to zero.

Most of the voluntary requirements will remain the same. The exception will be the minimum airflow requirements. The proposed rule will permit only bumpers that have mesh liners. Also, the new rule, if passed, would restrict the pad’s thickness to less than 2 inches. Additionally, the proposed rule would have a clause that limits how soft the bumper could be.

The CPSC recognizes that parents do not want their children to roll over and have their heads strike a hard surface, such as wooden bars of a crib. Consequently, the CPSC did not ban the sale of bumpers outright. Instead, the CPSC proposed the rule to strike a balance so that babies do not get caught between the mattress pad and the bumper or have a very soft item like a pillow bumper cover the child’s nose and mouth.