Inflatable accidents are up, up and away

If it hadn't been real, the sight of an 11-year-old boy flying  40 feet into the air clinging to an inflatable slide might have seemed like a whimsical scene from the movie "Up." And after a few terrifying moments, it did  have a happy ending; the Ohio boy landed safely thanks to some quick-thinking bystanders.

The unintended balloon flight highlights the dangers of inflatable amusements, which are subject to relatively few safety rules and regulations. Popular at kids' backyard birthday parties, local carnivals and other attractions, the inflatables come in all shapes and sizes with names like moonwalker and bounce house. They're big and bouncy and irresistible to kids.

Unfortunately, the fun can end quickly. Kids pile on top of other kids, breaking bones, chipping teeth or worse, or when the structures deflate unexpectedly, trapping children inside. In the case of the Ohio boy in June, a gust of wind caught the poorly anchored slide and lifted it into air with the child still aboard. As photos from the Middletown Journal show, he was brought to safety when some adults punctured the inflatable and it returned to earth. Other children suffered bumps and scrapes when the ride flipped several times.

In 2007, a 3-year-old died when he was crushed by two adults. Last fall, a young girl died after she broke her neck doing somersaults down an inflatable ride in Festus, MO, according to the Witchita Eagle. And last month, a 17-year-old Texas boy attempted a back flip on an inflatable ride, fell on his neck, and is now partially paralyzed.

Such accidents are on the rise as the popularity of inflatables grows, according to the Web site, Ride Accidents.com, which tracks incidents. The newest numbers from the Consumer Product Safety Commission, which were last updated in 2005, are sobering. The CPSC reported four fatalities in inflatable-related accidents from 2002 to 2005. In 2004, the most recent year for which we found complete data, inflatable rides, such as inflatable slides and bouncers, accounted for an estimated 4,900 injuries treated in hospital emergency rooms, according to the agency. That was up sharply from 1997, when the CPSC estimated only 1,300 such injuries -- a whopping 277 percent increase in just eight years (a time in which inflatables grew in popularity).

In 2007, the CPSC issued one of its first recalls of inflatable amusement ride devices in several years: Some 2,600 bounce houses made by Sportcraft (see image above) were recalled after the company received a handful of reports of fans and the surrounding plastic breaking apart during use, causing the inflatables to lose air.

It's up to the states or local municipalities to regulate inflatables. Few have. One of the first states to get tough on inflatables was New Jersey, which requires inspections and mandates that inflatables meet wind-anchorage and combustibility requirements. ASTM International, a voluntary-standards development organization, has developed a standard for inflatables. While ASTM standards don't carry the weight of law, they may be referenced in laws or contracts.

Before letting your child use an inflatable at a carnival or festival, check with the operator to see if it is properly anchored and that users are supervised. If you are renting one for a backyard event, the state of Washington offers these safety tips:

• Limit the number of users on the device;
• Make sure the inflatable isn't overloaded or unstable;
• Securely anchor the inflatable to the ground with pegs;
• Place the blower so it can't accidentally be unplugged, causing the inflatable to collapse.

Ladder and heater recalls underline dangers

Two recalls announced this week by the Consumer Product Safety Commission underscore some longstanding safety concerns we've had about two very different products: ladders and oscillating heaters. Although the number of units involved in each recall was relatively small, they're an indication of the hazards of these products—and a reminder that it's prudent to conduct your own safety inspection of these items even if you own ones that haven't been recalled.

The CPSC recalled 152,000 "Aloha Breeze" portable electric heaters because they can overheat, melt plastic parts, and pose a fire hazard. There have been 29 reports of the heaters melting, smoking, or catching fire, including 18 reports of property damage and one report of minor burns to a consumer's hands and feet.

The heater was made in China and sold at Wal-Mart and small retail chain stores nationwide from August 2006 through November 2007 for between $35 and $45. The CPSC advises consumers to immediately stop using the recalled heaters and contact Aloha Housewares at 1-800-295-4448 to receive a free replacement product.

It was just recently that we expressed concerns about oscillating heaters—those that move from side to side. The problem: the current safety standard for oscillating heaters may not be strong enough. Although there's an effort underway to revise and strengthen the standard, we encourage you to be vigilant; use the oscillating mode only when necessary, and inspect the cord for fraying or weakness, especially where it enters the unit.

The CPSC also recalled 25,000 fiberglass extension ladders due to fall hazards. The extension or "fly" section of the "Louisville/Davidson" and "Michigan" brand ladders can fail to lock, posing a fall hazard to consumers. The recall involves only models made from September 2007 through October 2007 that were sold at industrial supply stores and home centers nationwide through December 2007 for $130 to $760. The date code can be found on the left side rail. The commission advises consumers to immediately stop using the ladder and contact Louisville Ladder for instructions on inspecting the ladder and receiving a free repair kit, if necessary. Call (800) 660-4356 or go to the firm's Web site, www.louisvilleladder.com.

About 164,000 ladder-related emergency-room visits and 150 deaths are reported each year by the CPSC. Log on to Consumer Reports Online to learn how to use a ladder safely before taking that next step.

Where's the recalled beef?

Four days after the nation's largest-ever beef recall, U.S. consumers still have no way of knowing whether they ate—or might have in their freezers—some of the potentially suspect meat, food safety experts at Consumers Union said Thursday.

On Sunday the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced the recall of 143 million pounds of beef after the Humane Society of the United States released troubling videos of cattle that were too weak to walk apparently being prodded to slaughter.

The USDA has not yet specified where that meat was distributed and sold, prompting CU and other groups to call on U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Ed Schafer to make that information public. In a letter sent late Wednesday, the groups also asked Schafer to enact a rule proposed two years ago that would open such information to consumers in the future.

"There's no law that requires the USDA to keep information on stores that sold recalled meat confidential," said Jean Halloran, director of the food policy initiatives at the national consumer advocacy group. "That's their own internal policy, and they can change it. In fact, they have been talking about changing it for the past two years—but they just haven't acted yet."

Traditionally, the USDA has kept information about schools, nursing homes, and retail outlets that receive meat involved in a recall secret from consumers and even from state health officials, unless the state agreed not to release the information to the public.

Two years ago, Consumers Union led a successful fight to circumvent USDA's secrecy policy, at least in California, by requiring producers and distributors of meat sold there to notify the state's Department of Public Health if their meat is recalled by USDA. California law now allows state health officials to release that information to the public. The law took effect July 1, 2007; the current huge recall is viewed as the first test of whether the new policy is actually working.

Early reviews are not promising. Elisa Odabashian, director of Consumers Union’s West Coast Office in San Francisco, said her inquiries suggest that state health officials still do not have detailed information on retail sales, and she expressed concern that some of the recalled beef might still be in the freezers of California schools.

"It does not appear that the new state law is working," said Odabashian, "and there's no excuse for that, particularly because this was a California meat producer that was subject to inspections by the California Department of Food and Agriculture."

The recalled meat was processed at Westland/Hallmark Meat in Chino, CA. Perhaps one-third of it went to federal food and nutrition programs—most of which probably wound up in school lunches.

The incident is the latest in a series of food safety failures, the CU advocates said. The current issue of Consumer Reports, which is published by the consumer group, carries an article on a recent rise in beef contaminated with E. coli. And a January 2007 report on bacterial contamination of chicken revealed that the chance of buying chicken carrying campylobacter or salmonella had jumped sharply from CR's  analysis four years earlier.

There are no reports of illness linked to the latest recall, federal health officials emphasized. But the Consumers Union experts said that the incident highlights a gaping hole in the food safety net. "In this case, for over two years the inspectors at this plant failed to notice that 'downer' cows [those that could not stand and thus might be sick] were being sent into the food supply, which is not supposed to happen," says Halloran.

She and Odabashian say they hope the immense publicity surrounding the episode will force the government to change its policy. Says Odabashian: "This is a travesty. It's unfortunate that only this kind of incident gets people fired up enough to demand change."

ATV casualties: Another year of bad news

The numbers are in, and they're not pretty. Last week, the Consumer Product Safety Commission released its annual report on ATV (all-terrain vehicle) deaths and injuries. (You'll need Adobe Acrobat software to see the report.) We can all debate where the fault lies (irresponsible riders? a regulation-resistant industry? lax rule makers?) until the cows come home, but that won't change the facts. Although the numbers below are the recorded deaths and injuries, the CPSC estimates the real figures are even higher. The agency extrapolates from reported deaths to calculate a national estimate. For 2005, for example, the CPSC now estimates there were 870 deaths, up from an earlier estimate of 767. For 2006, we expect the number to be even higher.

• ATVs killed 111 children under 16 and injured 39,300 seriously enough to send them to the emergency room in 2006.
• A total of 555 deaths and an estimated 146,600 injuries from ATVs were logged for that year.
• The ATV industry currently operates under its own voluntary standards. The CPSC, which is responsible for regulating ATVs, proposed some rulemaking in 2006. Welcome to 2008, and though we still don't have regulations, the agency did find time last week to put out a 119-page status report (Adobe Acrobat required to access the report) describing its progress toward getting some on the books.

Not that the CPSC thinks ATVs are safe. Far from it. On its educational Web site, ATVSafety.gov, the agency states, "ATVs are not toys! They are powerful and potentially dangerous vehicles." Given that ATVs can move at 60 miles per hour or faster and can weigh 700 pounds, it's no surprise that 27 percent of ATV injuries in 2006 were to kids under 16.

The CPSC spells out the various ATV hazards: "collisions with stationary objects (e.g. a tree or a fence), moving highway motor vehicles, and moving off-road vehicles; encountering rough, changing, or uneven grade with subsequent overturning of the ATV and/or ejection of the victim; overturning of the ATV on apparently level ground; and failure to turn or missing a turn in the roadway or trail, with subsequent collision, overturning of the ATV, and/or ejection of the victim."

Even if riders manage to avoid all of the above-mentioned collisions, they may still be in danger. On the same day the CPSC released its updated list of deaths and injuries, Polaris Industries recalled an additional 50,000 ATVs for faulty electronic control modules that can cause fires. The first recall was in 2005; since then, the company has received an additional 372 reports of smoking or melted ECMs.

We reiterate our call for strong, mandatory ATV safety standards. In the meantime, parents should never allow their children under the age of 16 to drive or ride as a passenger on an ATV.

Latest recalls from the CPSC and FDA

For updated information on all U.S. recalls, go to recalls.gov.