WASHINGTON, DC — Consumer Reports (CR) this week submitted comments to the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) on its proposal to revise the agency’s existing mandatory safety standard for bassinets and cradles. Bassinets are often the first product parents purchase for their new baby, and the new revisions would address types of hazards not currently addressed in the standard. According to the CPSC, over 200 incident reports between January 2017 and December 2022, including seven infant deaths and 13 injuries, are linked to bassinets.
Consumer Reports strongly supports the CPSC’s proposal, which would update the existing standard with performance requirements specially tailored to address serious safety hazards that put babies at risk of injury or death. CR also recommended minor modifications to the proposed rule in its comments to the CPSC.
“Millions of infants in millions of households nationwide use these products every day, and we commend the CPSC for proposing this rule that would further improve safety for babies,” said Oriene Shin, Policy Counsel for Consumer Reports. “The work to ensure safety is never fully complete when a product continues to evolve to meet consumer needs, and parents deserve an updated standard that accounts for hazards found in today’s marketplace. With the proposed revisions and our recommendations, the CPSC can help ensure that bassinets and cradles provide the highest feasible level of safety for babies.”
The CPSC’s proposal would adopt the ASTM F2194-22 voluntary standard with modifications that remove the compact bassinet category and address five hazard patterns that pose serious safety risks to babies, including severe hazards from non-level bassinets, elevated/soft surfaces, nonflat mattresses, bassinets with design issues, and products with electrical issues. Some proposed changes include setting a minimum height for all bassinets to help discourage placement on elevated and soft surfaces, and requiring a strict horizontal tilt requirement of zero degrees to prevent babies from experiencing tilts that lead to them rolling into dangerous positions.
In January 2024, CR called on the CPSC to investigate and address incidents related to the bassinets, which may tilt laterally and cause babies to roll over onto their stomachs or into the corner of the sleep surface, increasing the risk of suffocation. Our analysis of SaferProducts.gov reports and publicly available reviews found numerous complaints connecting two cantilevered designed bassinets—the Kids2 Ingenuity Dream & Grow Bedside Bassinet and the Halo BassiNest Flex Portable Bassinet—to hazards that could create an unsafe sleep environment for infants.
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Media Contact: Emily Akpan, emily.akpan@consumer.org