An organization that tracks children’s product safety recalls found they increased slightly last year, and it’s urging parents to make sure they don’t have any of these potentially dangerous products at home.
The nonprofit group Kids In Danger (KID) has released annual reports on children’s product recalls every year since 2002.
Its 2020 report found that the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, or CPSC, recalled 63 children’s products, up from 58 in 2019 and 53 in 2018.
The complete list for 2020 can be found at the bottom of the report.
Sixteen children’s products recalled last year were nursery items, including six inclined sleep items.
Results of an independent study released by the CPSC in 2019 found sleepers with seat backs that incline more than 10 degrees can be deadly for babies. Children placed in these hammock-like sleepers can suffocate if their head tips forward, or if they roll over.
Fourteen recalled children’s products from 2020 were pieces of furniture. Eleven were recalled because they can tip over, trapping a child underneath. Current safety standards to prevent furniture tip-overs are only voluntary, so KID is urging Congress to pass The STURDY Act.
“It requires CPSC to draft a strong mandatory standard that would apply to all furniture sold in the U.S., and would eliminate these very unstable pieces of furniture that tip over under the weight of a very small child,” said Nancy Cowles, executive director of KID.
The STURDY Act passed the House in 2019, but stalled in the Senate. It’s been reintroduced in Congress this year.
Nine children’s products were recalled last year because they contain high levels of lead. That’s up from just one lead-related recall of an item in that category in 2019.
Cowles said it can seem overwhelming to try to keep up with child product safety recalls, but her organization can help.
“Kids in Danger has a monthly recall digest that we send out that’s just a one-page picture of all the recalled products from that month. So it’s easy to look to see if you might have one of them,” she said.
You can subscribe to the recall digest at the Kids In Danger website.
Here’s what March’s recall digest looks like.
