On April 1, Tami Vanderwilt will set out to hike the Appalachian Trail. Tami is planning this trip in honor of her grandson, Aiden. He was just 6 months old when his life was tragically ended after he suffocated against a bumper pad while sleeping.
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Hiking for Aiden
On April 1, Tami Vanderwilt will set out to hike the Appalachian Trail. Tami is planning this trip in honor of her grandson, Aiden. He was just 6 months old when his life was tragically ended after he suffocated against a bumper pad while sleeping.
Failed Investigations on Crib Bumper Safety
Chicago Tribune reporter Ellen Gabler has published an article exposing the Consumer Safety Product Commission's (CPSC) less than adequate job of investigating the role that crib bumper pads play in infant suffocation. The article reported that there have been 17 cases of infant deaths reported to CPSC that were not thoroughly investigated.
Monday, March 28, 2011
KID chosen for crowdSPRING's next Give Back project
Kids In Danger has been selected as the recipient of crowdSPRING's latest Give Back project!
Thursday, March 24, 2011
The Safest Line: a blog for parents
KID recently met with Ken Levinson, the author of The Safest Line blog. Ken is a Chicago attorney. We asked him some questions about the blog and his thoughts on safety for children.
What led you to start The Safest Line?
My experience helping injured children (plus having three boys of my own) inspired me to take a proactive stance to prevent child injuries by showing parents how to become active proponents of their own children’s safety.
What are your goals for the blog and outreach?
Parents are bombarded daily with child safety messages and warnings that create an environment of fear. The Safest Line helps parents move past the noise by cutting to the safety issues that matter. As parents we can do a better job educating ourselves and our children about child safety to reduce the amount of child injuries that occur each year.
I also want parents to feel empowered to take a stand against careless corporations and individuals. Being a child injury lawyer helps, but in the age of social media, parents have a whole new way of alerting the public about dangerous products and behaviors. The online petition to ban crib bumpers is a great example of the proactive steps we can take to improve child safety.
If you had to give parents one piece of safety advice, what would it be?
Be alert, be proactive, and stay educated – but don’t be overprotective. We want to raise children who think for themselves. Find effective ways to instill safety values in your kids. If parents are always doing the thinking for their children, those kids miss out on learning experiences that will protect them when they grow up and experience more personal freedoms.
What is the attorney’s role in product safety?
Thanks Ken! You can read KID's blog post on The Safest Line here.
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
CPSC and Delta reannounce recall of deadly cribs
After learning of another death, CPSC and Delta today re-announced the 2008 recall of almost one million drop-side cribs. The design of the crib relies on little plastic pegs to keep the drop-side in place. When they inevitably fall out unnoticed, the drop side can separate from the crib, causing a gap where a baby can be entrapped. A seven-month-old Colorado Springs girl died in 2009 after becoming entrapped. At the time of the initial recall, CPSC was aware of 1 death, 2 entrapments and nine disengagements due to the design. Today's announcement doesn't list any additional disengagements, although doesn't say there weren't any -- too bad the database wasn't up and running!
Monday, March 21, 2011
AAP and NHTSA -- new guidelines for car seats
In the April 2011 issue of Pediatrics, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) advised parents to keep their children in rear-facing car seats until age 2 or until the child reaches maximum height and weight limit for the seat. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) released new child seat safety guidelines shortly after AAP's publication was released.
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
More on the database, four days after launch
Have you gone to check out SaferProducts.gov? That's the new CPSCsite dedicated to the publicly available consumer safety incident database.
Consumers and others can report problems with products, incidents and injuries related to consumer products. CPSC has always had an online form for reporting, but now, most reports will become part of the public database.
Remember that this is a site to report safety issues, not product reliability or quality, except as they affect safety. So if the infant seat doesn't swing like it shows on the package, that is a quality issue, perhaps to be reported to customer service or an online product rating site. But if the motor that is supposed run the swing gets so hot it melts its casing and starts a fire, that is a safety issue and should be reported here, to CPSC.
Gather and input as much information about the product as possible – including identifying information such as model name or number, date of manufacture, etc. The more complete the report, the more likely it is to be posted and to provide CPSC with the information they need to assess the risk and take action if needed. CPSC has helpful pop-ups on the form that will help you find the needed information.
You need to provide your name and contact information for your incident to go into the database, but that information will not be posted and will only be released to the manufacturer with your permission. Giving the manufacturer your contact information, either through the CPSC form or by reporting directly to the manufacturer will allow them to fully investigate your incident and determine if action is needed. If you choose to file a report anonymously, CPSC will still get the incident information, but it will not go into the public database.
Manufacturers have 10 days after they are notified of a report by CPSC to review it for material inaccuracy. The best way to have the full 10 days is to register now with CPSC. The report will then be sent automatically.
Then, the report, if it has all the necessary information will be posted online. Right now, you can see the format here which CPSC has populated now with recall notices. Once the database has injury and incident reports, those will show up here too.
If you have problems reporting incidents or finding the data you need, let CPSC know. They already have great tools on the site to help both consumers and businesses navigate the system. We’d also love to hear of your experiences with the new database in the comments below.
Friday, March 11, 2011
Important Consumer Tool Launched Today
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- A coalition of consumer and safety groups today applauded the launch of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission’s consumer product safety information database that would allow people to share and access safety information about the products they own and consider buying.
The groups -- Consumer Federation of America, Consumers Union, Kids In Danger, Public Citizen, Union of Concerned Scientists, and the U.S. Public Interest Research Group -- hailed the launch as a major step forward in educating consumers about product safety hazards and improving the CPSC’s ability to identify and act on problems in the marketplace. The database is up and running today online at www.SaferProducts.gov.
The database is required under the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) approved by Congress and signed by President Bush in 2008. As the debate over the federal budget continues in Congress, some lawmakers have pushed to defund the database. Manufacturers have also been pushing to undermine the database.
The CPSC has historically collected consumer complaints, but because the agency has been required to obtain the approval of companies before it could communicate with the public about a specific product, the information has been kept from the public for months or even years. The consumer complaint database will help shed light on the safety of products currently in the marketplace.
The CPSC database contains an array of protections to ensure that inaccurate information does not get published. Anonymous complaints will not be permitted, and only safety-related information will be posted. Complaints will not be considered for publication if 8 specific minimum fields are not completed. Businesses also get to see every report of harm before it is placed in the database, and have the opportunity to correct inaccurate information and to provide their own comments. These measures provide an appropriate balance between transparency for consumers and providing protections for manufacturers.
Rachel Weintraub, Director of Product Safety and Senior Counsel at Consumer Federation of America, stated, “Consumers will no longer be left in the dark about product safety -- they will now have access to lifesaving information. The CPSC will also be able to more nimbly identify and act upon safety hazards. The database carefully balances the need to bring safety complaints to light, while also allowing manufacturers to review submissions and provide comments.”
Ami Gadhia, policy counsel for Consumers Union, the nonprofit publisher of Consumer Reports, said, “This is safety news consumers can use. Once the database is up and running, we think fears raised about the database will be shown to be unnecessary. This database will be a useful tool for consumers.”
Nancy Cowles, executive director of Kids In Danger, a nonprofit dedicated to protecting children from unsafe products, added, “This crucial tool will help parents keep their families safe. The database will fling open the windows at CPSC and allow consumers to learn of dangerous products before it is too late. The decades of hiding injuries and deaths for months or even years will end. Parents trust a lot of products with their children’s lives. The database puts information in the hands of those who need it most.”
Christine Hines, Public Citizen’s consumer and civil justice counsel, agreed. “Today begins a new era in consumer product safety - one that will empower consumers to help themselves to identify hazardous products. That’s why it’s imperative that Congress follows up its commendable action in creating the database by ensuring it continues to thrive with appropriate funding.”
Liz Hitchcock, U.S. PIRG Public Health Advocate, said, “The information exchange that SaferProducts.gov will provide for consumers is going to prevent injuries and save lives.”
Diana Zuckerman, Ph.D., President of the National Research Center for Women & Families/ Cancer Prevention and Treatment Fund stated, “The product safety database will give everyone the information they need to help protect themselves and their families. It’s a simple but effective strategy that will save lives and improve the quality of our lives.”
Celia Wexler, Washington Representative, Scientific Integrity Program, Union of Concerned Scientists, said, "The new database strengthens the transparency of CPSC and will enable scientists and researchers, both inside and outside the agency, to spot trends early and pro-actively. The ability to respond to problems before product defects harm scores of consumers benefits both the public and businesses.”
***
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Tomorrow is the day
It feels a little like the eve of the first day of school – some of us are very excited and can’t wait; others, not so much.
Tomorrow, CPSC will launch their new publically-accessible consumer database at saferproducts.gov. Now, just as is already the case with cars, medicine and medical devices, consumers will have a place to report incidents with products as well as look for safety information that other consumers might have entered. Manufacturers seem to be dreading the change in the current situation – where they have all the power to determine what safety information consumers know about their products.
We'll have more tomorrow on using the database.
For today, here are some statements from parents who have already lost children to unsafe products – they know the importance of this new database.
The CPSC database gives parents, grandparents, families, friends, medical personnel, and even retailers, IMMEDIATE and FREE access to information regarding problems reported on a particular product, not just those few which rise to the surface because a child has either died or been seriously injured by the product. By that time, it is dangerously too late. It could take months, as it did in Ellie’s case, before the public has knowledge of this essential information.
Lisa, mother of Ellie who was killed in a Graco play yard with a changing table accessory in 2002.
I firmly believe that if such a database was in effect in the 1990s my son, Tyler, would be alive today. Tyler died when a dangerous drop side crib strangled him. Tyler was not the first (and sadly, not the last) to die due to the inherently flawed crib design. If I, as a consumer, knew about the other babies who died in drop side cribs I would never have purchased that deathtrap. A public database would have empowered me to make a more informed decision about a product intended to be my Tyler’s safe haven.
Michelle, mother of Tyler, who died in 1998, entrapped by a drop-side crib.
If I had known there had been children killed in drop-sides, it would have swayed me against them.
KID believes this database is an important tool for consumers – both to report information they believe will keep other consumers safe and to research products they own or are considering purchasing. It will give CPSC and others tools to identify emerging hazards and injury trends. Contrary to the fears of some – KID won’t be entering data – we’ll be too busy making sure parents are aware of this great safety resource.
Monday, March 7, 2011
KID releases Moving Toward Safety, a review of 2010 recalls and CPSC actions
Today, KID, along with Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky and Illinois PIRG state director Brian Imus, released Moving Towards Safety, a review of 2010 recalls and CPSC actions.
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Days away from launch, public safety database still faces threats.
The database CPSC has been working on for two and a half years is days away from launch. It will go live on Friday, March 11. CPSC has carefully crafted the site to both solicit important safety information from consumers and encourage accurate reporting. The database will provide consumers with a place to report injury and safety information and provide consumers, researchers and the CPSC with important information on injury trends and emerging hazards.
Update on ICPHSO
So the week spent with other product safety folks at the International Consumer Product Health and Safety (ICPHSO) Symposium was full of information and opportunities to collaborate on new approaches to safety. The first day and 1/2 of the meeting focused on injury prevention. Representatives from the Injury Free Coalition for Kids, including our 2007 KID's Best Friend, Dr. Elizabeth Powell, presented information on their research and education efforts. Then, through a series of workshops, representatives from industry, retailers and consumer groups brainstormed with them on injury prevention ideas we could all implement.