There were 3,520 full-size crib incidents reported to the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) from Nov. 1, 2007 through April 11, 2010, according to Foundations, a manufacturer of commercial cribs used in hotels. And the dangers don’t end there. The company says that 23 percent of those incidents involved falls from cribs, while 22 percent were related to crib drop-side-related problems, which included drop-side detachment, operation, hardware, and assembly issues. Additionally, 12 percent of incidents involved infants getting their limbs caught between crib slats.
Those are troubling statistics, ones that would have any parent sacrificing sleep to watch over their child. And, those statistics have led to new regulations for commercial cribs for the first time in nearly 30 years. Under these federal regulations, places such as hotels and day care centers can’t offer cribs that do not meet the new standards. So, it’s possible that a crib purchased for use in a hotel may not meet the standards unless the hotelier purchasing it is aware of the new regulations.
So what are the new regulations? One of the main elements of the new standards is that no drop-side cribs are allowed after Dec. 28, 2012, which is the compliance date. Other regulations involve load tests. Full-size cribs must be able to withstand a total of 475 lbs. inside the crib, according to information provided by WEHSCO, also a manufacturer of commercial cribs. Non-full-size cribs must be able to withstand a total of 300 lbs. inside the crib.
Other regulations involve a lessening of the space between rail bars, which will result in more bars on cribs.
WEHSCO recommends that hoteliers use a 1-inch wide by 1.25-inch deep gap in the cribs. It also recommends loading the crib with 180 lbs. and having the crib travel 500 times over an elevator gap to test the crib. The manufacturer suggests asking for a report from an independent testing laboratory that confirms the crib has passed the new performance standards.
The CPSC said in its report that it expects that some portion of the more than 53,000 places of public accommodation that provide cribs for their customers will replace their cribs to be in compliance with this rule. There could be as many as 160,000 cribs that might need to be replaced.
For hotels that need to replace cribs, that means keeping the new standards in mind, or the cribs they purchase may be non-compliant in as little as 18 months.
