It’s an historic day for safe infant sleep! Today, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) passed a mandatory safety standard that would regulate infant sleep products by a 3-1 bipartisan vote. The new rule, which goes into effect in one year, will ensure that currently unregulated products marketed or intended to be sleep products for infants up to five months old comply with CPSC mandatory standards for infant sleep.
Inclined sleepers, which are not currently required to meet one of the CPSC’s safety standards, have led to at least 94 infant deaths. And this is just one of the types of products currently on the market unregulated. The proposed rule will ensure that all sleep products align closely with standards set by the American Academy of Pediatrics, which recommends infants sleep alone, on their back, on a firm flat surface, and with no extra bedding. We know that most parents assume sleep products sold must have been tested for safety first, but that is not always the case. Now it will be.
KID thanks the CPSC staff and commissioners for their hard work in developing the rule to prevent babies from getting injured or dying from unsafe sleep products, and to the numerous other consumer, medical, and safe sleep groups who have been advocating for this rule for years.
KID Executive Director Nancy Cowles stated, “Kids In Danger (KID) was founded by parents whose son died in a dangerous infant sleep product that came to market without meeting any safety standard. This rule will prevent that from continuing to happen to other families. This means that when parents buy or use infant sleep products in the future, they can be sure they meet a strong safety standard. This loophole that led to Danny’s death and hundreds of others will be closed.”
CPSC Acting Chairman Bob Adler said, “Today’s vote to finalize a rule on Infant Sleep Products is perhaps one of my proudest moments as a Commissioner at the CPSC. What we’ve done today fulfills the most sacred of our obligations as Commissioners—to take steps to protect vulnerable consumers, including babies. I note that what we are protecting them from is not something that is malevolent or nefarious. In fact, we are protecting babies from the most loving and well‐intentioned of acts—when a loving parent or caregiver puts a baby into a product that is intended or marketed for sleep.” View Acting Chairman Adler’s full statement here.
Read our joint statement with Consumer Federation of America, American Academy of Pediatrics, Public Citizen, Safe Infant Sleep, and U.S. PIRG here.
