Programs

KID Safety Design Toolkit

KID has worked with university level engineering students since 2003 through our Teach Early Safety Testing (TEST) program. This year we worked with teams at Boise State University for the first time, and continued our important partnership with University of Michigan Engineering. Last fall (2021), a team at Michigan worked to reduce the hazards associated with ingestion of button or coin cell batteries. Their prototype was a case for these batteries that protected children from point of purchase of the batteries to disposal after use. The team continued working on the prototype through independent study after their course completed and even won funding for pursuing product development. Another team addressed furniture tip-over by designing a dresser for a child’s room that was not tippable, yet was functional for its intended use.

In the spring, Boise State University students began a two-semester project that will continue into Fall 2022, focused on hazards with changing tables. A University of Michigan team also addressed hazards with changing tables, as well as attempting to improve smoke detector safety through ease of maintenance. The team studied smoke detector use in homes and made removal for battery replacement easier as well as integrating solar power to extend the life of the batteries.

Recall.IT

KID has been developing Recall.it, a browser extension that will give consumers safety information about products they buy online. Shoppers on Amazon, eBay, and Craigslist can view recalls, consumer reports of incidents, and injury information for products online. Working on Recall.it led us to see the shortcomings both of relying on CPSC data sources and a browser extension as a delivery device and we are refocusing on new ways to get information to consumers.

Research

Tracking Trends: Children's Product Recalls in 2021

KID’s annual report on recalled children’s products, Tracking Trends: Children's Product Recalls in 2021, found that deaths, injuries, and incidents reported prior to the recall increased tremendously since the previous year. In 2021, there were 14 deaths, 136 injures, and 6,058 incidents prior to recall, compared to 2020 in which there were no deaths, nine injuries, and 704 incidents.

Recalls of nursery products were associated with the highest number of deaths in last year’s recalls of children’s products. The Boppy Newborn Loungers and Fisher-Price Rock ‘n Glide Soothers together led to 12 deaths prior to recall. Almost all the deaths were to babies who fell asleep in the products, despite them not being safe for sleep. While there were only four recalls for ingestion hazard, one of these products, Zen Magnets and Neoballs Magnets, accounted for 10,000,000 units, and led to two injuries and one death prior to recall.

The CPSC’s required monthly progress reports (MPR) include companies’ reports on their recall efforts – and continue to be lackluster. KID filed 63 Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests for MPRs for recalls in 2020 and received very little data to analyze. Fewer than 10% of the reports has usable data available to review and even that data was incomplete and unreliable.

KID will continue to press CPSC and Congress to improve both recall effectiveness and consumer access to recall and other data hidden away at CPSC.