CPSC Denies 2 Petitions to Change Bunk Standards

July 8, 2015  by in Product, Youth, Juvenile Furniture   

The first petition, from 2010, proposed adding new requirements for head and neck entrapment testing by bunk bed manufacturers. Specifically, it would have required this testing for side structures, such as ladders, that are provided with a bunk bed. 

CPSC identified nine injuries and four deaths associated with side structure entrapments in 20 years of data. According to CPSC, the frequency of problems was too low to conclude that the risk of injury to consumers is unreasonable. There have not been any incidents since 2013 when the ASTM Subcommittee on Furniture Safety revised the voluntary Consumer Safety Specification for Bunk Beds to address the risk associated with side structures. 

The second petition, from 2002, proposed a mandatory prohibition of corner posts on all bunk beds.

CPSC found 16 unintentional strangulation incidents involving bunk beds and six deaths involving corner posts. Again, according to the agency, this number was too low to warrant a mandatory standard. CPSC argued that revising the mandatory standard would duplicate the safety effects of the 2007 updated voluntary standard that prohibited corner posts.

As part of the review process on these two petitions, CPSC staff members asked the American Home Furnishings Alliance (AHFA) to survey bunk bed manufacturers and attempt to determine their awareness of, and compliance with, the voluntary ASTM bunk bed standard. All AHFA member companies that produce bunk beds responded to the survey and confirmed their products comply with the voluntary standard. 

CPSC’s statues require the agency to make two findings before it can issue a mandatory standard. First, there can be no voluntary standard in place that adequately addresses the identified risk; and second, if there is such a standard, conformance to that standard must be shown to be lacking.