Note: Two recent news articles in the Washington Post and USA Today highlight the dangers consumers and their families face when authorities charged with safeguarding products are too hesitant to act. Because of these examples and others, the Consumer Federation of America, Consumer Reports, Kids In Danger, Public Citizen, and U.S. PIRG issued the following statement:

Washington, D.C. – “Every single day and especially now, as we enter the holiday shopping season, consumers expect that the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) will protect them and their families from unsafe products. In fact, it’s the agency’s main job.

As of today, serious concerns exist about the CPSC’s inadequate actions in response to safety hazards associated with crib bumper pads and liquid nicotine. Our organizations also have concerns about the CPSC’s lack of strong enforcement actions on dangerous infant inclined sleep products. The very least the CPSC can do is protect our nation’s most vulnerable people, including infants and toddlers, from dangerous products currently on the market or in use.

As these articles show, there are huge gaps in the CPSC’s efforts to protect consumers. Accordingly, we urge the CPSC to act quickly to:

• Ban crib bumper pads, which are unsafe, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics;
• Enforce the Child Nicotine Poisoning Prevention Act of 2015 (CNPPA) and recall non-compliant liquid nicotine containers; and
• Recall all inclined infant sleep products, which also are unsafe according to the American Academy of Pediatrics and research recently published by the CPSC.

Congress should also take action. It should pass H.R. 3170, the Safe Cribs Act of 2019, which would ban crib bumper pads; and pass H.R. 3172, the Safe Sleep for Babies Act of 2019, which would ban infant inclined sleep products. Especially in light of the CPSCs lack of action, congressional action is needed to protect our nation’s babies.”