Final Rule for Portable Bed Rails Safety Standards Approved by the CPSC

The Consumer Product Safety Commission has promulgated the Final Rule regarding safety standards for portable bed rails, to be effected from August 29th, 2012. The publication of 16 CFR Part 1224, as found in the federal register, will require all products imported or manufactured on or after the aforementioned date to adhere to the amended safety standards The CPSC announced publication of the Final Rule on February 29th 2012.

Prior to the publication of 16 CFR 1224, a proposal for a new rule, which sought to incorporate the voluntary safety standard ASTM F2085–10a, ‘‘Standard Consumer Safety Specification for Portable Bed Rails,’’ was published. This original proposal was determined to require further modifications and CPSC staff, in conjunction with the ASTM subcommittee, developed a newer edition of the standard which incorporates several significant changes.

A stricter standard, intended to further reduce risks associated with portable bed rails (http://www.cpsc.gov/businfo/frnotices/fr12/bedrails.html), resulted in the new voluntary safety standard ASTM F2085-12. This standard was incorporated by reference and without modification, into the Final Rule, CFR Part 1224. The new standard has been developed through a review of market information, by way of consultation with representatives of consumer groups, juvenile product manufacturers, and other experts.

The Final Rule, incorporating the newer version of the Standard, contains several important changes from the previously proposed rule.
Firstly CFR Part 1224 now provides the means to help determine incorrectly assembled portable bedrails. Further to this there is clarification regarding the criteria used to identify when incorrect assembly has occurred, by limiting the number of possibilities to configurations most likely to present entrapment hazards.

A further alteration from has seen Improvements made to the warning language contained in ASTM F2085–10a.with additional information and/or modification occurring to the warnings specifying that portable bed rails should “NEVER be used with children younger than 2 years old,” that they should be used “ONLY with older children who can get in and out of an adult bed without help,” and that “gaps in an around bed rails have entrapped young children and killed infants.” Additionally the language used in the instructional literature has been augmented to provide greater clarity.

The Indentation Load Deflection (‘‘ILD’’) test, that was included in the predecessor to ASTM F2085-12, and considered unnecessarily restrictive, has now been removed from the new standard.

Finally ASTM F2085-12 makes clear that guardrails outside the scope of the ASTM F1821 “Consumer Safety Specification for Toddler Beds” or those guardrails with attachments at the headboard or footboard, which have been created for a particular model of bed, are no longer covered under the new standard. .

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This release was published on openPR.