Welcome to the April edition of the Alston & Bird CPSC Recall Snapshot.
In March, the CPSC approved a new federal standard for infant bathtubs. The CPSC stated that the new standard, which incorporates the most recent voluntary standard developed by ASTM International (ASTM F2670-17), is intended to improve the safety of infant bathtubs and to prevent drownings. The new standard has several requirements, including latching/locking mechanism requirements, static load testing, and drowning/fall warnings, markings, and instructions. This new standard comes after the CPSC received 247 incident reports involving infant bathtubs from January 2004 to December 2015, 31 of which involved a fatality. Of the 216 nonfatal incidents, 32 involved an injury to an infant. The CPSC reported that the most frequent reported hazards were drowning/near-drowning when a child was left alone, protrusions/sharp edges, product failures, and entrapment issues. The effective date for the new standard is six months after the rule is published in the Federal Register.
Please see full publication below for more information.