Articles Posted in Children’s Injuries

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission has approved new mandatory standard to enhance the safety of frame child carriers. The safety standard does not apply to soft carriers and slings, which are subject to different standards.

Between January 2003 and September 4, 2004, the CPSC has received close to 50 incident reports about this child product, including reports of 34 injuries. One incident involved a toddler who sustained a head injury after a frame child carrier fell from a chair.

According to the new standard, a frame child carrier is typically made of fabric placed around a frame that is designed to carry a child weighing anywhere between 16 to 50 pounds. The child typically is too young to sit up without support. The carriers are worn on the backs of caregivers, often when hiking.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is investigating whether Graco Children’s Products Inc. waited too long to recall 6.1 million child safety seats. If the manufacturer did delay the recall of its car seats, it could be subject to a fine of up to $35 million, although now reportedly the White House is trying to get Congress to raise the maximum for that type of violation to $300 million for each incident.

Graco succumbed to government pressure last July, recalling around 1.9 million infant car seats made between 7/10 and 5/13. The safety issue involved buckles that could prove hard to open. This can be dangerous if a child needs to be removed from the child safety device immediately, especially in an emergency situation. That announcement expanded the company’s callback to over 6.1 million car seats.

Earlier in the year, Graco had recalled 3.7 million booster seats and toddler seats that were constructed between ’09- ’13 in the wake of NHTSA pressure. The agency had wanted Graco to recall 5.6 million child safety seats. A month later, Graco recalled another 400,000 car seats. Those were manufactured prior to 2009.

According to a study published in the medical journal Pediatrics, of the 17,230 kids under the age of 6 that were exposed to laundry-detergent pods in the United States in 2012 and 2013, 769 of them were hospitalized. The researchers, from Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Ohio, say that the number of laundry pod exposures increased over sevenfold in April of last year from the year previous. Thirty of the kids fell into comas, twelve went into seizures, and one child died.

Some 80% of the laundry pod market is comprised of products made by Tide. While the small packets are convenient for adults doing the laundry- just take one detergent pod and drop it into the wash, no measuring necessary-these colorful, squishy, small packets that can be mistaken for candy by young children are a poison hazard. Last year, the Consumer Product Safety Commission issued a warning to keep liquid laundry packets away from kids.

Swallowing and inhalation appear to be two main ways that kids are getting hurt. Resulting health issues have included vomiting, throat swelling, unconsciousness, breathing problems, temporary vision loss, and drowsiness. However, even adults are not immune from the risks. Handling the packet with wet hands can cause a laundry pod packet to dissolve fast, releasing the toxic contents quickly.