As a Texas product safety attorney, father of four, and grandfather of one, I have been keenly interested in following a tragic new development regarding child safety risks: Seven infant deaths linked to some very popular infant slings indicate that many of the models of slings may pose too great of a danger to infants, according to Inez Tenenbaum, Chairwoman of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, the federal government's consumer protection agency. So says EmaxHealth in a recent article on the subject. In fact, some 1,588 posts on the issue of infant sling dangers appear on the CPSC's own website as of today.
According to a Tampa Bay Online March 9th article, Chairwoman Tenenbaum said that the CPSC is on the verge of issuing a general warning to the public concerning the grave hazard.
Further tracing the history of problems with infant slings, the Tampa Bay Online article pointed out another scary fact: as far back as 2008, safety watchdog Consumers Union began warning of other infant sling hazards, in an article published in its Consumer Reports magazine. In fact, its current article on the subject elaborates on 37 other serious injuries to infants carried in those slings. Says the article, skull fractures and other broken bones, plus serious bruises, occurred most often when the infant actually fell out of the sling. Poignantly, Consumer Reports says that the pathetic injury record, along with the absence of any safety standards, put infant slings on that magazine's list of products not to buy for infants.
The magazine repeated its call for a federal government recall of one model, the Infantino SlingRider, on account of the child suffocation risk it poses. Furthermore, it also promised it would publish more information on this timely topic of infant sling hazards in the next few weeks.
