Should the Consumer Product Safety Commission Adopt a Stability Standard to Prevent Dressers From Tipping Over On Children? (H.R. 1314)
Do you support or oppose this bill?
What is H.R. 1314?
(Updated June 26, 2021)
This bill — the STURDY Act — would seek to make furniture safer for young children by directing the Consumer Product Safety Commission to adopt a stronger, mandatory stability standard for free-standing clothing storage units (such as dressers, chests, chests of dressers, or bureaus) within one year of this bill’s enactment.
This standard would follow the streamlined rulemaking process that the Consumer Product Safety Commission has used for numerous children’s products, and could be based on a voluntary standard (such as the American Society for Testing and Materials’ International standard). It would be required to include specific additional criteria to ensure children’s safety.
The additional criteria that would be required include:
-
An increased weight limit to simulate the weight of children up to six years old (72 months);
-
Testing under real world conditions such as climbing, carpeted floors, and open drawers;
-
Inclusion of smaller clothing storage units (defined as those under 30 inches in height); and
- Strengthened warning requirements.
This bill’s full title is the Stop Tip-overs of Unstable, Risky Dressers on Youth Act.
Argument in favor
Furniture tip-overs can seriously injure or even kill young children. These tragedies could be prevented with better stability standards requiring furniture manufacturers to design and test for stability that would be imposed by this bill.
Argument opposed
ASTM International, an organization that develops voluntary technical standards for testing materials and products, already revised its dresser stability standards to cover dressers as short as 27 inches in 2019. Alternatively, parents concerned about dresser tip-overs can anchor their furniture to the wall, as advocated by the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) in its “Anchor It” campaign.
Impact
Families; children; furniture; furniture safety; furniture tip-overs; Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC); and CPSC standards for furniture safety to prevent furniture tip-overs.
Cost of H.R. 1314
During the 116th Congress, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated that this bill would cost $1 million to implement over the five-year period from 2019 to 2024.
Additional Info
In-Depth: Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), a Senior Chief Deputy Whip and Chair of the Energy and Commerce Committee’s Consumer Protection and Commerce Subcommittee who began her career as a consumer advocate, reintroduced this bill from the 114th and 116th Congresses to direct the Consumer Product Safety Commission to adopt a stronger, mandatory stability standard for clothing storage units to prevent furniture tip-overs from killing or injuring children:
“As parents juggle supervising their children while working from home during the ongoing pandemic, families deserve peace of mind that their furniture is safe. Sadly, current voluntary furniture stability standards are inadequate, and unstable furniture continues to be a top hidden household hazard. Every forty-six minutes, a child is injured in a tip-over incident. Between 2000 and 2019, tip-over incidents have been linked to more than 460 child fatalities. Today, I'm reintroducing the STURDY Act to protect children from these preventable dangers and spare families from these painful situations resulting simply from a piece of furniture.”
When she introduced this legislation in the 116th Congress, Rep. Schakowsky said:
“Every hour, of every day, approximately 3 children are getting injured – over 25,400 per year. Between 2000 and 2011, these tip-overs have resulted in at least 363 fatalities, with most of the innocent victims being less than 8 years old. I’m introducing the STURDY Act to help protect children from these preventable accidents and spare their families these painful situations, resulting simply from a piece of furniture.”
Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA), sponsor of this bill’s Senate companion, says:
“Furniture tip-overs can put our Nation’s children in danger. The STURDY Act directs the CPSC to establish a stronger, mandatory stability standard to help protect kids from being injured or killed by tip-overs of chests, dressers and bureaus. Congress must quickly pass this legislation to stop the hundreds of preventable injuries, and even deaths, that impact children and families across the country each year. I commend the CPSC for their important work on addressing furniture tip-overs and making homes safer for children.”
Parents Against Tip-overs supports this legislation. Founding Member Kimberly Amato says:
“Passing the STURDY Act is imperative to the safety of young children across the nation. Despite more than 16 years of educating parents and caregivers about the dangers of furniture tip-over and the importance of anchoring furniture, only about 1/4 of Americans actually anchor their furniture. A voluntary standards process for furniture safety that is now 20 years old has not changed the fact that an average of 11 children are rushed to the ER every day when a dresser/clothing storage unit falls on them. Requiring all manufacturers to build safety and stability into the design of dressers and other clothing storage units as outlined in the STURDY Act is long overdue. Of the 459 children killed by TVs or furniture since 2000, over half of those deaths occurred in their bed room. The STURDY Act would greatly reduce these statistics and save lives.”
Consumer Reports, which has supported this bill in multiple Congressional sessions, supports this bill as a means of protecting children from deadly furniture tip-overs. Its Policy Advocate, Gabe Knight, says:
“We need the STURDY ACT to help save lives and prevent furniture tip-over tragedies. This bill has widespread support among parents, medical groups, and safety experts. Last year, a bipartisan coalition of policymakers came out in support of the STURDY Act. Consumer Reports urges Congress to pass this bill right away so the CPSC can put a strong safety standard in place. Quick action is critical to addressing this deadly hidden hazard.”
Kids in Danger has supported this bill in both the 116th and 117th Congresses. In 2019, Kids in Dangerexecutive director Nancy Cowles saidlow recall numbers in that year seemed to suggest that dangerous products were being left in homes, putting children at risk:
“It is tricky to say whether low recall numbers are a good thing – pointing to safer products – or a sign of lax enforcement, leaving dangerous products on store shelves and in our homes. Indicators this year, such as less effective actions in lieu of recalls and fewer findings of design defects in the recalls that were announced, make us worry it is the latter.”
In a joint fact sheet released by Kids in Danger and a number of other consumer and medical groups, Cowles added that the current voluntary standard hasn’t done enough to reduce tip-overs. She concluded, “Congress must pass the STURDY Act now to mandate stringent testing on dressers before they hit the market and end up in children’s bedrooms.”
While it supports a mandatory stability standard to hold all manufacturers to the same safety specifications for clothing storage furniture, the American Home Furnishings Alliance (AHFA) argues that this bill is unnecessary because the CPSC has already begun working on a mandatory standard. It also argues that some elements in this bill, such as testing furniture on a “standard” carpet and “standard” carpet padding, aren’t possible because there are no standard definitions of such items. The AHFA’s CEO, Andy Counts, says:
“None of these proposed new tests have been defined yet nor determined to be feasible. In order for a mandatory standard to be enforceable, the stability tests must be precise, so every manufacturer is able to conduct the tests exactly the same way. Whether a company is located in the United States or overseas, whether they produce low cost furniture or luxury furniture, everyone must use specified test materials and methods to remove any guesswork and guarantee accurate results. AHFA remains committed to working with CPSC to research meaningful new tests that can be standardized and incorporated into a mandatory standard.”
The AHFA has also proposed several amendments to this legislation, including a proposal that these requirements be limited to products meant for children.
This bill has 21 Democratic House cosponsors in the 117th Congress. Its Senate companion, sponsored by Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA), has 16 bipartisan Senate cosponsors, including 14 Democrats and two Republicans. It is supported by a number of consumer advocacy, child safety, and medical groups, including Consumer Reports, the Consumer Federation of America, Kids in Danger, and the American Academy of Pediatrics.
In the 116th Congress, this legislation passed the House by voice vote with the support of 23 Democratic House cosponsors. Its Senate companion, sponsored by Sen. Casey, had 15 Democratic Senate cosponsors. It’s was supported by Kids In Danger, Parents Against Tip-overs (PAT), the Consumer Federation of America (CFA), Public Citizen, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), and Consumer Reports.
In the 114th Congress, this legislation didn’t have any House cosponsors and didn’t receive a committee vote. Its Senate companion, sponsored by Sen. Casey, had two Democratic Senate cosponsors and also didn’t receive a committee vote.
Of Note: The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) estimates that a child dies due to a furniture or TV tip-over every 10 days, and a child is sent to the emergency room due to this every 30 minutes. According to a 2020 CPSC report, tip-overs cause an average of 25,500 emergency room-treated injuries each year due to children being crushed, trapped, or struck by furniture, TVs, and appliances. Since 2000, more than 460 children have been killed by furniture tip-overs.
When Rep. Schakowsky originally introduced this bill in December 2016, it was in response to three reports of toddler deaths after IKEA Malm dresser tip-over accidents.
In 2019 — the same year that this bill was last introduced — ASTM International, an organization that develops voluntary technical standards for testing materials and products, revised its dresser stability standards to cover clothing storage units as short as 27 inches. The previous standards covered only dressers that were 30 inches or taller.
If this bill were to be implemented, the costs of new regulations may be borne by millions of consumers, including those without children. In a Consumer Reports test of tip-proof dressers, four of the five dressers that remained stable with 60-pound weights hung from an open top drawer (simulating a child pulling on the front of a dresser) cost more than $500. All dressers that cost less than $100 failed the 60-pound test.
Since 2015, the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) has run an “Anchor It!” educational campaign to encourage parents to secure furniture to walls with straps and furniture anchors.
Media:
-
Sponsoring Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) Press Release (117th Congress)
-
Sponsoring Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) Press Release (116th Congress)
-
Sponsoring Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) Press Release After Committee Passage (116th Congress)
-
Senate Sponsor Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA) Press Release (117th Congress)
-
CBO Cost Estimate
-
Consumer Reports (In Favor, 117th Congress)
-
Kids in Danger (In Favor, 116th Congress)
-
Consumer and Medical Groups Joint Fact Sheet and Statements (In Favor, 116th Congress)
-
Consumer and Medical Groups Joint Letter to Members of Congress (In Favor, 116th Congress)
-
Kids in Danger Fact Sheet
-
Furniture World
-
Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) Report (Context)
-
Causes (116th Congress Summary)
Summary by Lorelei Yang
(Photo Credit: iStockphoto.com / PeopleImages)The Latest
-
IT: Battles between students and police intensify, and... 💻 Should we regulate AI access to our private data?Welcome to Thursday, May 2nd, listeners... The battle between protesters and police intensifies on college campuses across the read more...
-
Should U.S. Implement Laws Protecting Private Data from AI Access?Artificial intelligence is rapidly integrating into our everyday lives, transforming the way we work, live, and interact with read more... Artificial Intelligence
-
Protests Grow Nationwide as Students Demand Divestment From IsraelUpdated May 1, 2024, 11:00 a.m. EST The battle between protesters and police has intensified on college campuses across the read more... Advocacy
-
IT: Rumors spread about ICC charging Israel with war crimes, and... Should states disqualify Trump?Welcome to Tuesday, April 30th, friends... Rumors spread that the International Criminal Court could issue arrest warrants for read more...