defective children’s products’
Lawmakers Try to Eliminate Funding for Consumer Product Safety Website
Tuesday, July 12th, 2011
Just a few months after the launch of Saferproducts.gov, the consumer product safety website that has been widely supported by Houston product liability attorneys, lawmakers are already trying to derail the project. A new spending bill will substantially reduce funding for the Consumer Product Safety Commission. The bill contains a clause that would completely cut funding for the database.
The database allows consumers to post complaints about products that they have purchased. Manufacturers are allowed to read these complaints, and respond. The website allows American consumers greater access to safety information of the kind they need...
Can Your Car Safety Seat Really Protect Your Child from Injuries?
Sunday, May 8th, 2011
That's the question parents and Houston product liability attorneys will be asking after a recent study which revealed that most children are able to unfasten their car safety seat belts, increasing the risk of injuries in an accident.
The researchers mailed more than 500 surveys to pediatric offices around Connecticut. The study found that children, even those at one year of age, can easily unbuckle their seat belts. The results also found that more than 40% of children, who were able to unbuckle the restraints of their car safety seat, did so while the car was in motion. ...
Federal Agency Sets New Safety Standards for Toddler Beds
Tuesday, April 19th, 2011
The Consumer Product Safety Commission has come out with a new mandated set of toddler bed safety standards. The new rules are part of the requirements of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008, which ordered the Consumer Product Safety Commission to set standards for cribs, beds and other children's products.
The new toddler bed safety standards will require that the upper edge of the guardrail be at least 5 inches above the bed’s mattress, and the bed’s spindle/slat strength testing correspond with the current crib testing requirements. Besides, the new rules require that manufacturers include warning...
Children’s Products Accounted for 45% of All 2010 Recalls
Thursday, March 17th, 2011
In 2010, approximately 45% of 160 products recalled for safety reasons were children's products. Of these, nursery products were the most often recalled, and accounted for 29% of recalls. The largest recall in 2010 was the Shrek McDonald's glass recall, after it was found that the paint used on the glasses contained cadmium.
Those statistics and more are contained in a fascinating new report by a children's safety organization called Kids in Danger. According to the report, children's product recall rates were high in 2010, but the Consumer Product Safety Commission has to be commended for taking at...
CPSC Database under Threat from Lawmakers
Thursday, February 24th, 2011
Earlier this year, the Consumer Product Safety Commission made available a database that allows consumers to post information about defective products. The information is freely available to other consumers. The database is a big step towards greater consumer safety, and I believe that the database will make it easier for consumers to become aware about possibly defective or malfunctioning products. However, the database already faces threats from lawmakers.
Legislators, mostly Republicans, have been talking about depriving the Consumer Safety Commission of its database funding. At a House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee hearing, consumer safety groups...
CPSC Announces Ban on Drop Side Cribs
Wednesday, December 22nd, 2010
It’s official. Drop side cribs, which have been extremely popular in the US, have now officially been banned from the market place. The Consumer Product Safety Commission last week announced a complete ban on the manufacture, distribution, sale and importation of these cribs.
As a Houston injury lawyer, I greatly welcome this ban. Drop side cribs come with one side that can be moved up and down, allowing the parent to access the child inside the crib. These cribs quickly became very popular. However, the popularity concealed a dangerous defect. The drop side was prone to...
CPSC Reports Increase in Nursery Product Injuries in 2009
Thursday, November 4th, 2010
Injuries involving children's products actually increased in 2009. According to a report by the Consumer Product Safety Commission, there was an increase of 21% in nursery product injuries, including those involving cribs, strollers, high chairs and infant carriers. The most number of injuries in 2009 involved infant carriers, cribs and strollers. Together, these cars accounted for more than half of all nursery product-related injuries in 2009.
Infant carriers were involved in 15,800 injuries last year. That was a 35% increase from 2008. There was also a 27% increase in the number of crib-related injuries in 2009 over 2008. ...
