Posted on 06/28/2011 8:33:47 AM PDT by Dr. Scarpetta
Beginning today, a new generation of cribs, designed to be safer, will be the only ones approved for sale — in stores, online, and even at neighborhood yard sales.
Ushering in one of the most significant changes in child safety in decades, the rule taking effect this week bans the manufacture, sale and resale of drop-side cribs.
Drop-sides have a side rail that can be raised and lowered to allow parents to more easily place or lift a baby, but they have been blamed in the deaths of several dozen children.
Another significant part of the new federal standard mandates more rigorous safety tests for children’s cribs before they hit the market.
Drop-side cribs have been around for decades. But they have increasingly come under scrutiny in recent years because of malfunctioning hardware, sometimes cheaper plastics or assembly problems that can lead to the drop-side rail partially detaching.
That can create a dangerous “V”-like gap with the mattress in which a baby can get caught and suffocate.
Drop-sides are blamed in the deaths of more than 30 infants and toddlers since 2000 and suspected in about a dozen other infant fatalities. Since 2007, more than 9 million drop-sides have been recalled including cribs from Evenflo and Pottery Barn Kids.
The end of drop-side cribs marks a long-awaited day for Susan Cirigliano, who lost her 6-month-old son, Bobby, when his drop-side slid off the tracks in 2004, trapping his head and neck between the mattress and the malfunctioning side rail.
He suffocated.
While drop-side cribs will no longer be made or sold, they are still being used in homes across the nation.
The industry says drop-sides that haven’t been recalled can be used safely as long as they are properly assembled and maintained to the manufacturer’s instructions.
(Excerpt) Read more at lehighvalleylive.com ...
So if an “unapproved” crib is offered at a yard sale, I assume Mom and Pop will be thrown to the ground, handcuffed, imprisoned for a few days and fined the value of their home?? Wouldn’t exactly be a surprise, would it!
I thought the same thing
No offence to Mrs. Cirigliano, but her baby’s death is not a reason to slap diapers on the entire rest of the country.
With so many killer cribs lurking out there and no nanny-state to control them — up until now, thank goodness — it’s simply amazing that the population of the earth somehow reached six billion souls.
They seem to issue new stadards every couple of years. What? Are cribs the leading cause of death in this country? Is there a problem that desperately needs a solution?
Honestly, I know this *may* have been intended as hyperbole, but I can see just that sort of thing happening with our out of control government.
No governmant can mandate risk away! This is nanny statism to the max.
All this from a government which will lock you up for protesting the “retail” [there is not enough profit in “wholesale”] slaughter of babies in the womb.
A time of reckoning is coming.
Did you hear that Susan? Because you are a dim bulb, and too stupid to assemble a crib. The rest of us are going to be treated like criminals. I dropped a pretty penny on my kids crib and was planning on selling it since she stopped using it this spring. Looks like I would have an easier time selling crack on the street corner than getting some money out of this dreaded crib thanks to these unfit parents.
Going beyond the details on this specific new set of regulations, here is yet another example of fiat regulations by the “Consumer Product Safety Commission”, as opposed to real legislation. There needs to be a BIG PUSH to de-regulate the economy to get it fully functional, and the candidates should be “educating” us about how they will go about unleashing the private sector.
Back around 1980 or so, when AIDS came on the scene, some folks had crazy ideas:
Crazy Idea #1: Close the bath houses where men had promiscuous anonymous sex.
Crazy Idea #2: Mandatory testing of the partners of homosexuals with AIDS as a public health measure (we test married couples for syphilis).
Crazy Idea #3: Quarantine AIDS patients and keep them away from the general population.
These ideas would have saved many thousands of lives. But the Left opposed them all. They were all intrusive. They were all homophobic. They were all ideas of Hate.
But cribs? Sure! Let's put new laws in place! We could save 50 lives!!!!
My condolences for those 30 infants and toddlers that died. All in all, a small number of deaths compared to the total population.
Having said that, what about the 'abortion mills' that murder with impunity on a daily basis?
“No governmant can mandate risk away!”
No. You are wrong. It is the imperial federal government’s job to ensure there are no risks to anything. All will be perfect once they are done. You will experience a new life free from any type of physical or mental harm. And so it is written........
Excellent question...
Good point...
I've got two in my house at this very moment.
Where in the constitution does it say a federal government agency can prevent me from selling a piece of my personal property, assuming the transaction is local and not crossing state lines?
Question 2:
If the answer to number 1 is they can. What is to prevent them from preventing any and all individual resale transactions on the grounds that forcing customers to buy only new items from stores is good for the economy?
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