The 21-page report released Tuesday by nonprofit safety groups Kids in Danger and Shane's Foundation — named for a Barrington Hills boy who died in 2011 after a dresser-tipping accident — details the findings after tests on 19 different dressers.
Nine of the 19 passed performance tests based on current safety standards developed by ASTM International, but just two passed more rigorous tests developed by Kids in Danger, which Executive Director Nancy Cowles says are more representative of real-life situations. Of the 19 tested, four have been recalled since the groups began work on their report about a year ago.
ASTM has developed voluntary industry standards for dressers and chests marketed to children, but there is non-compliance across the industry, and standards are too lax, Cowles said during a press conference Tuesday in Northbrook to reveal the report, funded by a federal grant. And though children continue to be injured and killed from tipped dressers, the standards and testing have remain unchanged and voluntary, unlike standards for cribs or other baby products, she said.
"You would think there'd be a mandated standard," said Lisa Siefert, who started Shane's Foundation after she found her 2-year-old son Shane under his dresser after a nap. She called the report "a significant step proving the current safety standard is inadequate. It indicates the dire need for change. Our babies can be safe."
Besides the safety tests, the groups also analyzed data from incidents reported between Jan. 1, 2010 and Oct. 14, 2015 to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission and the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System. The findings showed 2-year-olds are the most likely to be involved in a tip-over accident, especially fatal ones, and 77 percent of reported tip-overs involve children between 2 and 5.
"Years of ... voluntary industry standards resulted in no significant improvements," Cowles said. "The data still shows injuries and deaths. Our organizations hope this new information will provide the necessary impetus to design, test and sell safer furniture."
The report calls on the ASTM to develop stricter standards, and for the Consumer Product Safety Commission to make them mandatory. Cowles and others also said testing of products should evolve to simulate more real-life scenarios, including using carpet, commonly found in children's bedrooms.
The groups also promoted the Consumer Product Safety Commission's #AnchorIt campaign, which urges parents to attach furniture and TVs to the wall with widely sold safety kits.
In addition to using the industry standards to test the furniture, the stricter Kids in Danger criteria tested dressers when they were full of clothes, placed on carpeting or had TVs on top of them, as well as other variations of weight and drawer placement. Children being killed or injured by flat-screen TVs has also emerged as a bigger safety risk since flat-screen TVs, which are easier to tip over, replaced older, bulkier sets.
However, in the testing, the groups also found that TVs do not make the dressers fall. Dressers are not more likely to tip if they have a television on top, Cowles said.
"That's what we often hear in the furniture meetings, that who really needs to address this issue is the television makers," Cowles said. "However, it is the dresser that is tipping."
Most of serious injuries and deaths do involve a TV, Cowles added, but often it's the dresser that's the culprit, being the object that tips over.
During Tuesday's press conferences, organizers demonstrated by hanging a 50-pound weight on the bottom drawer of different dressers. Two dressers that passed even the stricter tests did not tip or move from the weight. Another dresser — one by Ikea that has since been recalled after children died in accidents — toppled to the ground.
Cowles explained that the design of some dressers — with wider bases or interlocking drawers that only allow one to open at a time — make the furniture safer. However, she said all dressers should be anchored to the wall with safety kits, regardless of design.
U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky, a North Shore Democrat, also reiterated her support of the issue at Tuesday's event, and said she introduced legislation earlier this year, dubbed the STURDY Act, that would mandate such standards for dressers and other storage units.
Elliot Kaye, chairman of the consumer product safety commission — the body that could mandate and enforce standards in the furniture industry — released a statement Tuesday, calling furniture tip-overs a "solvable problem." He said designing more stable furniture and consumer outreach programs like #AnchorIt are part of the solution.
"We're examining the results of this important and timely study closely and will incorporate its findings as appropriate into our enforcement and standards work around this ongoing and unacceptable hazard," the statement in part read. "In the interim, I reiterate that anyone producing or selling furniture not compliant with the current voluntary standard should prepare to work with us regarding a recall modeled on similar recent furniture recalls."
Len Morrissey, a director in ASTM's standards development division, said a committee is already re-examining standards for dressers. He said suggestions highlighted in the report "seem like all very well-reasoned things," and some are already included in discussions for possible revisions. Members of the committee, which are open to anyone in the public to join, include representatives of manufacturers, consumer advocacy groups and engineers.
He also pointed out there have been updates to the standards, including a 2009 requirement that calls for manufacturers to include a wall restraint with furniture.
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