2.2 Million Drop-Side Cribs Recalled
Baby Suffocation Danger from Stork Craft, Fisher-Price Drop-Side Cribs
By
Daniel J. DeNoon
WebMD Health News
Reviewed By
Louise Chang, MD
Nov. 24, 2009 -- After four U.S. infants died while trapped in the cribs,
2.2 million drop-side cribs made by Stork Craft -- including 147,000 with the
Fisher-Price logo -- have been recalled.
It's far from the first time that child entrapment has led the U.S. Consumer
Product Safety Commission to recall drop-side cribs.
CPSC chair Inez Tenenbaum is now considering banning this type of product,
says CPSC spokeswoman Nychelle Fleming.
"We have had other drop-side crib recalls, and the chairman is proposing to
write regulations in the next few months to address the bigger issue of
drop-side cribs," Fleming tells WebMD.
The current recall is the largest crib recall in CPSC history. It includes
only cribs with plastic hardware made by Stork Craft Manufacturing Inc. of
British Columbia, Canada. Stork Craft drop-side cribs made with metal rods are
not part of the recall.
The recall includes more than 1.2 million cribs sold in the U.S. and
nearly 1 million sold in Canada.
CPSC, Health Canada, and Stork Craft have learned of 110 incidents in which
the drop-side of the cribs became detached: 67 incidents in the U.S. and 43 in
Canada.
All four of the deaths involved infants who smothered while trapped when the
crib hardware detached and the child slipped between the side of the crib and
the mattress. They included:
- A 6-month-old in Summersville, W.Va.
- A 7-month-old in Gouveneur, N.Y.
- A 7-month-old in New Iberia, La.
- A 9-month-old in Bronx, N.Y.
Other injuries include 20 falls from cribs, with injuries ranging from
bruises to concussion.
All cribs involved in the incidents had plastic hardware that broke or wore
out over time, or hardware or crib sides that had been improperly installed by
the consumer during crib assembly.
Not all the cribs are new. Some were sold as long ago as 1993.
"We have just not been acting as quickly as we should have at the Consumer
Product Safety Commission on this type of incident," Tenenbaum said today on
the CBS Early Show.
The current recall includes Stork Craft cribs with manufacturing and
distribution dates between January 1993 and October 2009.
Consumers who purchased the cribs are being offered a free repair kit that
will prevent the cribs' drop sides from moving. The repair will turn the
drop-side cribs into stationary-side cribs.
This recall also includes Stork Craft cribs with the Fisher-Price logo that
have manufacturing dates between October 1997 and December 2004. The Stork
Craft cribs with the Fisher-Price logo were first sold in the U.S. in July 1998
and in Canada in September 1998.
The cribs were sold in various styles and finishes. The manufacture date,
model number, crib name, country of origin, and the firm's name, address, and
contact information are located on the assembly instruction sheet attached to
the mattress support board.
The firm's insignia "storkcraft baby" or "storkling" is inscribed on the
drop-side teething rail of some cribs. In Stork Craft cribs that contain the
"Fisher-Price" logo, this logo can be found on the crib's teething rail, in the
manufacturer's instructions, on the assembly instruction sheet attached to the
mattress support board, and on the end panels of the Twinkle-Twinkle and
Crystal crib models.
Major retailers in the United States and Canada sold the recalled cribs
including BJ's Wholesale Club, J.C. Penney, Kmart, Meijer, Sears, USA Baby, and
Walmart stores and online at Amazon.com, Babiesrus.com, Costco.com, Target.com,
and Walmart.com from January 1993 through October 2009 for between $100 and
$400.
The cribs were manufactured in Canada, China, and Indonesia.
For additional information, contact Stork Craft toll-free at (877) 274-0277
anytime or visit storkcraft.com to order the free repair kit.
Fleming said that Stork Craft has been inundated with calls, and that the
company web site was unable to handle the traffic. She urged consumers who
purchased the product to be patient and to keep trying to get through -- and
warned them not to used the cribs until the repairs are made.
SOURCES: Nychelle Fleming, public affairs specialist, U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.
News release, U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, Nov. 23, 2009.
CBS Early Show, Nov. 24, 2009.
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