This week in safety

Food contaminated with melamine continued to be in the news this week both here and abroad. A brand of candy popular in China was found on shelves in Connecticut. In addition, California took some important safety measures and the Illlinois attorney general said the federal recall system was inadequate.

Highway group releases new ratings of child booster seats
Consumer Reports Cars blog

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) released new ratings of child booster seats. The first of their kind, IIHS ranked boosters from those that performed as “best bets” to those that are “not recommended” based on the seat’s ability to correctly position a vehicle’s lap and shoulder belt for booster-age children, not on their performance in simulated crash tests. Read more ...

Illinois Atty. Gen. Lisa Madigan says recalls not enough
Chicago Tribune

Illinois Atty. Gen. Lisa Madigan on Wednesday urged federal safety regulators to curb the sale of secondhand products recalled for potentially deadly flaws.

Madigan's push came after her office found more than 400 recalled bassinets for sale, primarily on Craigslist. The bassinets, sold under the Simplicity, Graco and Winnie the Pooh labels, have a bad design that caused the deaths of two babies. Read more ...

California launches broad effort to control hazardous chemicals
Los Angeles Times

California on Monday launched the most comprehensive program of any state to regulate chemicals that have been linked to cancer, hormone disruption and other deadly effects on human health.

The new measures are designed to encompass 80,000 chemicals now in circulation, rather than focus narrowly, as previous bills have, on specific substances in products such as baby bottles, toys, mattresses, computers or cosmetics. State regulators are to inventory the most dangerous, widespread chemicals first and control them at the manufacturing stage, before they are handled in workplaces, incorporated into products or allowed to escape into air and water. Read more …

More tainted candy from China is found in the U.S.
New York Times

More contaminated Chinese candy was discovered in the United States on Wednesday, this time in Connecticut, where consumer protection officials issued a public warning against eating the sticky sweet.

The discovery announced Wednesday involved the White Rabbit Creamy Candy brand, which is sold in 50 countries but has already been recalled from stores in Britain and many Asian countries. Jerry Farrell Jr., Connecticut’s consumer protection commissioner, announced that contaminated candy had been found at two stores in New Haven, one in West Hartford and one in East Haven. In each case, tests found traces of an industrial additive, melamine, in the candy. Read more ...  (Previous story.)

California sues over crib, changing table warnings
San Francisco Chronicle

Some baby furniture manufacturers aren't warning consumers about the dangers of a toxic gas emanating from cribs and changing tables, according to a lawsuit announced Wednesday by the California attorney general.

Five manufacturers are violating the state's anti-toxics law by selling products containing formaldehyde at levels high enough to put infants and others at risk by breathing in the noxious gas, said the suit filed in Alameda County Superior Court. Read more ...

CPSC reminds parents of drowning dangers inside the home
Consumer Product Safety Commission

Water anywhere can be a potential drowning hazard. While pools are an obvious risk, parents should not let their guard down around other hazards such as bathtubs and buckets. The CPSC is warning parents that children need to be supervised around these common but sometimes hidden drowning dangers.
After pools, more children drown in bathtubs than in any other product in and around the home. Read more ...

Don’t miss these recalls

• 5,000 Ikea chests of drawers (laceration hazard)
• 30,000 Pottery Barn hammocks (fall and laceration hazard)
• 4,600 Viessmann U.S. Recalls Boilers (fire hazard)
• 18,000 Ski-Doo snowmobiles (axle failure)