Senator Durbin accepts Kids In Danger's Best Friend Award

Kids In Danger marks tenth anniversary

Chicago - On Friday, April 18, 2008, Kids In Danger (KID), a nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting children by improving children’s product safety, marks their tenth anniversary at the Annual Best Friend Award Night at Hugo's Frog Bar and Fish House in Chicago.

Senator Richard J Durbin is the recipient of this year’s KID’s Best Friend Award. “We are pleased to honor Senator Durbin,” said event co-chair Karen Bertoli. “Throughout his career he has been a champion for children and their safety. Most recently, with unprecedented attention to dangerous children’s products, he has demonstrated leadership in shaping a congressional response leading to landmark legislation containing important safeguards for our children.”

Sponsors of the event include Celsis Inc, Toys”R”Us, Corboy & Demetrio, Schwartz Cooper Chartered, Turano Bread Company, and Gibsons Restaurant Group.

“This is going to be a special night,” said Linda Ginzel, co-founder and President of Kids In Danger. “Taking in the ten years of hard work and seeing all of the people who’ve helped to get us here is a momentous feeling. With all the attention to children’s product safety in the past year, substantive improvements to children’s product safety oversight seem finally to be within our grasp. Of course, remembering Danny and all the other victims of recalled children’s products reminds us of just how far we have to go at the same time.”

Chicagoans Linda Ginzel and Boaz Keysar founded KID in 1998 after their sixteen-month-old son, Danny, died in a recalled portable crib. KID’s mission is to promote the development of safer children’s products, advocate for children and educate the public about dangerous juvenile products. All proceeds directly benefit the work of Kids In Danger. More information is available at KidsInDanger.org.

CPSC Nursery Products Report raises troubling issues

This month, CPSC released a report on injuries and deaths from nursery products -- cribs, strollers, high chairs and similar products. The injury data is from 2006 and the death statistics are from earlier -- 2002-2004. Even with the delay in releasing the data, it raises troubling issues.

In 2006, 66,400 children under age 5 were rushed to emergency rooms due to injuries from nursery products. Falls were the most common cause of injury requiring emergency room treatment, and cribs, carriers and strollers were involved in the most injuries. In general, this information undercounts injuries since it only includes those involving emergency rooms, not urgent care centers, doctor's offices or those treated at home.

From 2002 to 2004, the report shows 241 deaths of children under 5 involving nursery products, an average of more than 80 a year. The products most likely to be involved in a death are those associated with sleeping -- cribs, bassinets, play yards or bathing -- bath seats and tubs. CPSC reports that 47% of the crib deaths involved soft bedding and 25% involved cribs with broken or missing hardware or parts. Given the large recall of 1 million Simplicity cribs due to breaking hardware, KID is afraid this number will only grow.

Also troubling were the deaths in play yards and portable cribs. Some seemed to repeat the same pattern as the hazardous side rails in the Playskool Travel-Lite which led to 17 deaths. But with CPSC reporting that the report did not involve any recalled products, we are left wondering if products still on the market have the same deadly flaw.

What can parents and caregivers do to prevent injuries in these products? KID has more information at our website on different product hazards, but here are a few tips:

• To prevent falls, keep babies in products low to the ground and always use restraint systems in high chairs, strollers, carriers, changing tables or swings.
  
• Keep sleeping environments clear of all soft bedding, including bumper pads, sleep positioners, comforters, pillows and stuffed animals. Never use adult bedding in a crib or other infant sleep environment.
  
• Check your crib and other products carefully when first assembled and regularly during use. Do not use a product with broken or missing hardware.
  
• Most importantly, report products that break or appear unsafe to both the manufacturer and CPSC. Without required safety testing in place, parents have to be vigilant to root out unsafe products.
  

After debating the underlying bill and amendments all week, the Senate this afternoon passed the CPSC Reform Act of 2008 -- an amazing bill that introduces many of the changes KID has been supporting for the children's product safety system. It finally passed 79-13. Included in both the House and Senate versions of the bill is language from Representative Schakowsky's Infant and Toddler Durable Product Safety Act, which will require CPSC to formulate mandatory safety standards for cribs, strollers, high chairs and other infant and toddler products.

Kids In Danger was founded 10 years ago after the death of Danny Keysar in an untested, unsafe portable crib. We applaud the Senate for passing this bill which will fix the flawed children’s product safety system that led to Danny’s death -- it will save lives.

While the Senate and House bill will now have to be reconciled in conference, both contain important safeguards for children. In addition to the infant and toddler product standards, both increase funding for CPSC, reinstate the full five commissioners, ban lead in children's products and more.

On February 12, Kids In Danger released with U.S. Representative Jan Schakowsky, 2007: The Year of the Recall, an annual study of recalled children’s products. In addition to Schakowsky, KID was joined by Cara Smith of the Illinois Attorney General’s office and Brian Imus of Illinois PIRG.

The report found that children’s product recalls by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) jumped in 2007. There were 231 recalls accounting for more than 46 million items, including twelve recalls that involved one million or more units.

“These products together caused at least 657 injuries and 6 deaths,” stated Nancy Cowles, executive director of Kids In Danger. “And those incidents include only those already reported at the time of the recall. More needs to be done to protect children from these hazards.”

KID recommends:

Congress must act quickly to enact pending legislation that would increase funding for CPSC and strengthen their ability to protect children.

States should enact legislation to ban the sale of recalled products or their use in childcare facilities. Only eight states, including Illinois, now have a Children’s Product Safety Act.

Lead should be banned in any children’s products. Manufacturers must certify that their products and product components are lead-free. KID supports the American Academy of Pediatrics call for lead levels of no more than 40 parts per million, as compared to the currently allowable rate of 600 parts per million.

“The report released by Kids in Danger today underscores the need to overhaul our nation's consumer protection system,” said U.S. Representative Jan Schakowsky (D-IL). “Under the current system, too many dangerous products are slipping through the cracks and making their way into our homes. Fortunately, the 110th Congress has made a serious commitment to eliminate dangerous products, modernize product safety standards and improve the effectiveness of recalls. The CPSC reauthorization bill, which recently passed the House, would save lives by getting dangerous products off store shelves and out of our homes. I urge my colleagues in the U.S. Senate to pass the strongest CPSC reauthorization bill possible.”

“In Illinois, by partnering with advocacy groups like Kids in Danger, we have taken the protection of children into our own hands and are working to inform caregivers of these dangers, said Attorney General Madigan. “The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission and product manufacturers must take greater steps to ensure that consumers who have these dangerous products in their homes become aware of recall and know how to respond and that retailers have sufficient information to inform their customers.”

KID recommends that parents check the products used with their children at www.cpsc.gov and sign up for safety updates at www.KidsinDanger.org.

“The release of today’s report highlights that the agency we rely on to protect our children from unsafe products is failing to do its job,” said Brian Imus, State Director with the consumer advocacy group Illinois PIRG. “We need to stop hazardous toys from ending up on store shelves, rather than rely on woefully ineffective, after-the-fact recalls to remove them from our homes.”