KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Consumer Product Safety Commission announced a recall this week of 165,000 incline baby sleepers because of a risk of suffocation.
Safety experts are heralding the recall as part of a more aggressive stance the agency has taken since being criticized last month for siding too often with industry.
The change in attitude at the Consumer Product Safety Commission is evident on the commission’s website, which lists the recall of inclined sleepers such as the SwaddleMe by Your Bed sleeper.
There are also two public safety warnings, something that hasn’t been issued in more than two years. One warning regards a 4-drawer dresser that can tip over, and the second warning involves a potentially dangerous infant sleeper.
A Congressional staffer tells FOX4 that the recall and the warnings are a “flurry of activity” from the commission. Some credit the change to a critical report released in December by the staff of a Senate Oversight Committee.
William Wallace, manager of home and safety policy for Consumer Reports, said the report shone a light on serious failings inside the CPSC.
“Everybody trusts that if a product is on the shelf and it is available online, that it will be safe,” Wallace said. “Unfortunately that’s not necessarily the case.”
According to a Senate Oversight Committee report entitled Failed Recalls, the Consumer Product Safety Commission for years ignored warnings to recall the BOB Jogging Stroller where 100 injuries were reported involving children and adults, including several people in Kansas.
The Commission also failed to act quickly in recalling the Rock N’ Play Infant Incline Sleep where more than 30 infants died from suffocation.
Brad Winfrey, a safety expert at Children’s Mercy Hospital, said babies were sliding down into the sleeper and becoming entrapped.
The report also criticized the commission for recalls that it said often served “less as remedies to consumers” and more as financial incentives to the companies whose products were being recalled.
“Basically what happens is the company and the government negotiate over what the terms of the recall will be,” Wallace said.
Some companies were allowed to issue vouchers requiring customers to purchase a different item instead of getting their money back.
One of the recommendations in the report was for the commission to offer most customers refunds or easily made repairs, instead of vouchers.
The Senate report also criticized the commission for not slapping fines on more companies when they fail to report potentially hazardous products. Senate investigators found many companies were slow to report problems knowing that there was a good chance they would never be fined.
