Watchfulness Is Focus Of Baby Safety Week

Government and industry cooperative efforts have resulted in significant safety improvement in children's nursery products, but watchfulness by parents and other adults is still necessary. Last year there were an estimated 72,000 nursery product-related injuries to children under age five, the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) reported today. The agency also found an average of over 70 deaths per year associated with nursery products over the past five years. The agency released these figures for the observance of Baby Safety Week, September 15-23, an annual joint observance with the Juvenile Products Manufacturers Association.

"There is no substitute for adult supervision protecting children from death and injury," said CPSC Acting Chairman Anne Graham. Safe products (conforming to either mandatory or voluntary standards) cannot always prevent accidents. "A child in a walker can still fall down a flight of stairs." Walkers were associated with the largest number of injuries during 1988 followed by strollers and carriages and cribs.

In spite of safety improvements in the design and construction of nursery products, there are still older products being used in homes and in other types of facilities.

Over 50 of the deaths were associated with cribs, more than with any other nursery product. Many of these are older cribs, such as those stored in attics, or sold at garage/yard sales. These older cribs may have slat spacing more than 2 3/8 inches in width, decorative cutouts, or high corner posts, hazards that can result in strangulation.

Child care facilities such as family day care providers and day care centers too should be aware of potential hazards, the agency advised. Parents should be as concerned with the nursery equipment used in these child care facilities as much as they are in their own homes.

To help parents and others identify these and other nursery equipment hazards, a checklist and other safety information is available from the Consumer Product Safety Commission, Office of Information and Public Affairs, Washington, D.C. 20207.

Baby Safety Week is a joint program by the Commission and the Juvenile Products Manufacturers Association, which represents the manufacturers of cribs, high chairs, play yards, car seats, carriages, strollers and related products. Since mid-1970s the Association has sponsored voluntary safety certification programs to ensure conformance to a number of voluntary standards for nursery products.