A burning threat: Fire and burn hazards of children's product recalls 1992 to 2002

Fires and burns are leading causes of unintentional injury and death of children in the United States, claiming the lives of approximately 800 children under the age of fifteen annually and injuring thousands more. Each year, 150,000 children are burned in America. Compelled by the great risk to children from fire and burn-related injuries and deaths, Kids in Danger undertook this report to examine children's product related fire and burn hazards from June 1992 to 2002. Children's products recalled by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) for fire, burn and electric shock hazards pose a sizeable risk to children. Since June 992, 42 recalls have been issued for these hazards, accounting for over 16 million individual units. products were recalled for different reasons including battery failure, overheating, improper labeling, electrical wiring defects and flammability. Other findings of this report include: -Electrical wiring defects led to the highest failure rate with 537 reported failures for 6 recalls. Overheating or melting followed at 324 failures for 11 recalls and battery defects at 44 failures for 2 recalls. -Forty-eight percent of children's products recalled for fire, burn or electric shock hazards were toys. Clothing followed at 33%, nursery products at 14% and furniture at 5%. -The largest recall was for 10 million Power Wheels battery powered ride-on vehicles from Fisher-Price. Four other juvenile product manufacturers issued recalls of over 500,000 units each. -Sixty-five burn injuries were reported from these recalled products. One fatality was reported in a fire started by a Gerry Baby Products Deluxe Baby Monitor, Model 602. -Thirty-six percent of recalled products violated the federal 'Flammable Fabrics Act'. Based on this analysis, Kids in danger recommends that: -Juvenile product manufacturers take more proactive measures in the recall process by working with the CPSC to inform consumers about defective products and tracking effectiveness of this process. -Children's products be required to certify that they were manufactured to meet existing mandatory standards. -Manufacturers take responsibility to design and adequately test their products before they are in the hands of consumers. Kids in Danger is a nonprofit organisation dedicated to protecting children by improving children's product safety. This report is based on public information about recalls released by the CPSC.