Federal government moves to ban drop-side cribs

WASHINGTON - They've been a fixture in millions of American homes since the 1940s, used by parents, then passed down to friends and relations. But the federal government is moving to ban drop-side cribs, saying the nursery furniture with a movable side poses lethal dangers to children.

By the end of this year, it will no longer be legal to sell a drop-side crib. And places of public accommodation - day care centers and hotels - will be prohibited from using them, federal officials said. Under rules now being developed, violators would face a range of penalties, from an order to stop use to criminal sanctions.

Both Nassau and Suffolk banned drop sides cribs last year. The Suffolk County Legislature passed the ban in October, and it was signed into law in November, hailed as the first in the nation to do so. Nassau followed suit in December.

Drop-side cribs - which have one side that lowers to allow caregivers easy access to a baby or a toddler - have caused at least 32 infant deaths in this country since 2000, according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission. Fourteen other fatalities could be related to drop-side cribs, but investigators lacked information to make a clear link, according to agency officials.

"There have been few too many recalls and far too many deaths from defective cribs in recent years," said Inez Tenenbaum, chairman of the safety commission.

Since 2005, more than 7 million drop-side cribs have been recalled by manufacturers because of suffocation and strangulation hazards, including one last year involving 2 million StorkCraft cribs that amounted to the largest single product recall in the commission's history.

It is unclear whether manufacturing changes have made the cribs more dangerous or whether the government has gotten better at pinpointing the cause of infant deaths.

Many deaths associated with drop-side cribs occurred when the movable side partially detached, trapping the infant between the mattress and wooden slats of the crib. In some cases, caregivers unwittingly installed the drop side incorrectly. In other cases, the crib hardware apparently failed and the side detached.

The crib industry maintains that drop-side cribs are not inherently hazardous.

"When these products are used correctly, they're perfectly safe," said Mike Dwyer, executive director of the Juvenile Products Manufacturers Association, which represents about 90 percent of crib manufacturers.

The new federal standard also will require cribs be able to meet a certain level of mattress support and be able to pass a "shaking test" to ensure they can withstand jumping and pulling expected from a typical toddler, among other things.

With Olivia Winslow