Daily News
From Home Furnishing Business
Senator to IKEA: Stop Manufacturing Unsafe Dressers
June 27,
2016 by in Business Strategy, Industry 
Senator Bob Casey (D-Pa.) is leading the charge to create a national safety standard for dressers that furniture manufacturers such as IKEA would have to meet to to prevent tip-over deaths of children.
If passed and signed into law, the STURDY Act, which stands for “Stop Tip-overs of Unstable, Risky Dressers on Youth,” would direct the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) to adopt a “mandatory stability standard for clothing storage units. There have been several lawsuits filed against IKEA involving their design of their MALM dresser. According to the CPSC, tip-overs of furniture, appliances and TVs cause roughly 25,400 annual injuries.
In reaction to the lawsuits, IKEA has reportedly made free kits available to mount the dressers to the wall. Casey said the CPSC should recall IKEA’s MALM dresser due to the deaths that have occurred.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) is co-sponsoring Casey’s bill and Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) introduced it in the House.
Schakowsky protested the fact that IKEA still sells the same MALM dressers that have tipped over on top of children. “IKEA’s actions were clearly insufficient. These dressers are not safe,” she said.
In a related story, The American Home Furnishings Alliance is seeking information from the industry to determine compliance levels with the voluntary ASTM Furniture stability standard. The AHFA is asking for this information from non-member companies to present to he U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.
The AHFA said its member companies comply with the standard but that this only represents roughly half the U.S. market.
Contact Pat Bowling at the AHFA via e-mail patbowling@ahfa.us or call 336-881-1006 to have your company added to the list of compliant companies.