0 Summer Infant bath seats recalled due to fall danger

More than 2,000,000 Summer Infant baby bath seats are being recalled in North America, warn the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission and Health Canada. The company's Mother's Touch and Deluxe Baby Bathers can suddenly collapse when parents lift them, dropping the baby out of the bather, posing a fall hazard and a risk of serious head injury. The CPSC and Summer Infant have received seven reports of incidents in the U.S., including five instances of infants suffering a head injury after a fall from the bather. Four children between two weeks and two months old suffered a skull fracture, including one who required intensive care for...

0 School bus tips for motorists

Riding the big yellow school bus is a safer mode of transportation for children than driving or walking to school, but the real risk for injury is from motorists who do not follow the proper laws and procedures when driving near a bus. Putting figures to the obvious risks, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) reports there is an average of 139 fatalities per year involving school transportation-related crashes. Most of these fatalities aren't to the children on the buses, but rather to occupants of other vehicles involved in the crashes (72 percent) or to other non-occupants of the buses, such as those who are...

0 CareBear baby pacifiers recalled due to choking hazard

More that 119,000 CareBear Pacifiers are being recalled by importer IDM Group LLC, of New York for failing to meet federal safety standards. The silicon nipples of the recalled baby pacifiers can separate and pose a choking hazard to infants, said the Consumer Product Safety Commission. The CPSC says the sub-standard pacifiers, which bear the trademarked cartoon CareBear characters, were sold at various discount and dollar stores nationwide from October 2009 through June 2012 for about $1. The recalled pacifiers, which bear the trademarked CareBear cartoon characters, failed the CPSC's extensive "pull test" said Consumer Reports safety...

0 Bumbo Baby Seats recalled due to fall hazard

A safety recall warning for about 4 million Bumbo Baby Seats has been issued again by the Consumer Product Safety Commission. The agency says babies can still maneuver out of and fall from the seatswhich can be especially hazardous if the Bumbo seats are used at heights such as on a table top or kitchen counter. When the CPSC first warned of the dangers with Bumbo Baby Seats in November, the agency was aware of at least 45 falling incidents. And despite warning labels on the front and back of the seats, the CPSC continued to receive reports of infants injured from falling, prompting today's recall notice. Consumer Reports' experts have...

0 Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act celebrates 4th anniversary

Today is the anniversary of the national consumer product safety law that changed safety standards in the U.S. after an outbreak of recalls, injuries, and deaths linked to dangerous children's products in 2007 and 2008. Under the law, which was supported by Consumer Reports, toys must be tested for safety before they're sold. The product safety law, CPSIA, greatly reduced the lead levels found in children's products, as well as set tougher safety standards for cribs. The law also created the nation's first online database, SaferProducts.gov, where consumers can file safety complaints about products. "The database is a tremendous resource...

0 GAO: Time to reassess limits on cell-phone radiation

Spend a lot of time in close contact with your cellphone? Many of us do, and it's been 15 years since the Federal Communications Commission set a limit on how much low-level radiation cell phone users are exposed to. It's time for a new look at both that limit and the technique used to test for it, according to a report issued this week by the U.S. Government Accountability Office. Current limits may be based on out-of-date research, and its test requirements may underestimate the maximum exposure users experience when holding phones against the body, according to the GAO review, done at the request of members of Congress. "With mobile...

0 Study shows too many kids graduate early to inappropriate car seats

Car crashes are the number one killer of children in the United States between one and 13 years old. A new study published today by the American Journal of Preventive Medicine reveals why kids are at risktoo few parents are using child safety or the incorrect seats and too many are letting their kids ride up front. The "Child Passenger Safety Practices in the U.S." study, by two researchers at the University of Michigan, showed that few children remain in rear-facing car seats after age one, that fewer than 2 percent use a booster seat after age seven, and that many children over age six ride in the front seat. Researchers also found...