OnSafety is the Official Blog Site of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. Here you'll find the latest safety information as well as important messages that will keep you and your family safe. We hope you'll visit often!
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By CPSC Blogger on March 20, 2013
While kids getting into bottles of pain medicine remains a leading cause of poisonings, new and different serious risks have emerged.
 New single-load liquid laundry packets look like candy, toys or teethers, but they are dangerous for children. This isn’t the liquid laundry detergent from your childhood. These packets are filled with highly concentrated, toxic chemicals. Wet hands, water and saliva can quickly dissolve these packets, releasing the chemicals.
In 2012, CPSC staff learned of more than 500 incidents involving children and adults who were injured by these packets. If you use these packets in your home, always handle them with dry hands and keep them out of sight and reach of children. CPSC is encouraged that the manufacturers of laundry packets are developing improved warning labels, making their product packaging less attractive to children, and have committed to implement a comprehensive consumer awareness campaign. However, CPSC seeks additional design changes to all types of packages containing laundry packets that will make individual packets less accessible to children. You should start seeing safety alerts in stores soon that alert you to important laundry packet safety concerns.
 If you have any type of electronics in your home, you likely have coin- or button-sized batteries. They are in remote controls, electronic games, toys, musical cards, hearing aids and other common electronic products. These small batteries pack a powerful —and deadly—punch. These batteries can cause life-threatening chemical burns inside the body in as little as two hours. Incidents often involve children younger than 4 and senior adults. Even completely dead batteries have enough residual power left in them to cause serious injuries.
While improvements are in the works to prevent people from suffering burn injuries if they ingest a battery, please take immediate steps to safeguard your children right now do the following:
- Check your electronics’ battery compartments and tighten with a screw.
- For battery compartments that do not use a screw, try securing them with strong tape.
- Put any item with an unsecured button battery up and out of both the sight and reach of a child.
- When the batteries die, make sure to throw them out in a way that children can’t retrieve them.
- Also, make sure to buy the correct-size replacement battery so you don’t have any batteries lying around that you don’t need.
- Finally, don’t store a remote control on top of un-anchored televisions or furniture. That creates a different, significant hazard of TV tipovers for your child.
CPSC is encouraged that the coin and button cell industry is developing more secure packaging and taking additional steps to try to keep the products away from young children. However, CPSC is looking to see design changes that eliminate the serious chemical burn injuries that often occur upon ingestion.
Here are other poison prevention tips, which can help you provide a safe environment for your children to explore.
- Keep medicines and household chemicals in their original, child-resistant containers.
- Store potentially hazardous substances up and out of a child’s sight and reach.
- Keep the national Poison Help Line number, 800-222-1222, handy in case of a poison emergency.
- When hazardous products are in use, never let young children out of your sight, even if it means you must take them along when answering the phone or doorbell.
- Leave the original labels on all products, and read the labels before using the products.
- Always leave the light on when giving or taking medicine so you can see that you are administering the proper medicine, and be sure to check the dosage every time.
- Avoid taking medicine in front of children. Refer to medicine as “medicine,” not “candy.”
- Clean out the medicine cabinet periodically and safely dispose of unneeded and outdated medicines.
- Do not put decorative lamps and candles that contain lamp oil where children can reach them. Lamp oil can be very toxic if ingested by children.
If you have a poison emergency, call the national Poison Help Line at (800) 222-1222.
This address for this post is: http://www.cpsc.gov/onsafety/2013/03/safeguard-your-home-from-emerging-poisoning-risks/
By CPSC Blogger on March 11, 2013
SaferProducts.gov turns 2 today. In two years, we have posted more than 13,500 consumer product safety-related reports. These reports may involve products in your home or products that you are thinking about purchasing. These are available for you to see.
Make today your SaferProducts Day. Explore the reports and recalls that have been posted, be informed, and be empowered.
Share this free poster. We have posted it on Flickr for easy sharing. We also have a print-friendly version for you to post in your community.
This address for this post is: http://www.cpsc.gov/onsafety/2013/03/happy-birthday-saferproducts/
By CPSC Blogger on March 7, 2013
In honor of National Consumer Protection Week, we have pulled together our Top Ten YouTube videos that you, our viewers, have valued the most (or at least spent the most time watching over the past 3 ½ years):
- Maclaren Stroller Recall Video
- Pool Safely Educational Video
- Safe Sleep for Babies: Learn How
- Advertencia sobre los Cargadores de Tela Para Bebé (CPSC Advises Parents “Use extra caution with infant carrier slings”)
- Crib Safety Q&A
- Furniture Tipover Tragedies
- SaferProducts.gov: Toy Chopper Frenzy (Saferproducts.gov, by the way, is celebrating its second anniversary on March 11!)
- Teen to Teen: Magnet Talk
- CPSC Advises Parents: “Use extra caution with infant carrier slings”
- Stop Using Recalled Simplicity Drop-Side Cribs
Did you know that CPSC has three YouTube channels? We launched with our main channel in 2009.
At the time, we posted Spanish videos on our single channel along with English. But as the channel grew, we wanted to make it easier for you to find our Spanish videos. USCPSC Español launched in May 2011. In addition, all of our Pool Safely campaign videos are on a dedicated Pool Safely YouTube channel.
Happy viewing!
This address for this post is: http://www.cpsc.gov/onsafety/2013/03/view-cpsc-on-youtube-your-consumer-product-safety-information-destination/
By CPSC Blogger on February 19, 2013
Blog en español
 Print and post or share this free poster in English and Spanish. Beginning Feb. 28, 2013, manufacturers and importers of infant and toddler play yards are required to test their play yards to ensure that they meet new federal safety standards.
Play yards are framed enclosures with a floor and mesh or fabric side panels. Most can be folded for storage or travel.
Play yards that meet the new safety standard must have:
- Side rails that do not form a sharp V when the product is folded. This prevents a child from strangling in the side rail.
- Stronger corner brackets to prevent sharp-edged cracks and to prevent a side-rail collapse.
- Sturdier mattress attachments to the play yard floor to prevent children from getting trapped or hurt.
The new play yard standard is one of many safety standards that CPSC has passed as part of the Danny Keysar Child Product Safety Notification Act, or what we call “Danny’s Law.” Danny Keysar was killed in Chicago in 1998 when a previously recalled play yard in which he was napping collapsed, suffocating him. This new play yard standard was completed in honor of Danny and his family.
In addition to the play yard safety standard, CPSC has issued mandatory safety standards for cribs, children’s bed rails, baby bath seats, baby walkers, infant swings and toddler beds.
CPSC staff is currently working on safety standards for bedside sleepers, hand-held infant carriers, bassinets, and bassinet attachments to play yards and will propose rules this year for strollers, soft infant carriers and infant slings.
If you use a play yard, keep it bare when you put your baby in it. Each year, CPSC receives reports of infant suffocation deaths. Some key causes of these deaths are the placement of pillows and thick quilts in a baby’s sleeping space and/or overcrowding in the space. Here’s more information on how to put your baby to sleep safely.
This address for this post is: http://www.cpsc.gov/onsafety/2013/02/play-yards-new-safety-rule-to-take-effect/
By CPSC Blogger on February 8, 2013
Blog en español
Two women are reported to have died from carbon monoxide poisoning recently in Chicago, according to the Chicago Tribune. The newspaper reports that a faulty boiler is suspected. Elsewhere, in Oxford, Conn., a man reportedly died due to high levels of carbon monoxide (CO) found in a home where he was housesitting. The dogs in the house died, too. (Connecticut Post, 1/30/13).
These reported deaths are just two of the regular, tragic reminders we see that carbon monoxide is a killer. In fact, CO is called the “invisible killer,” because you can’t see, smell or taste it. Don’t let this happen to you.
The best way to prevent carbon monoxide poisoning in your home is to:
- Have fuel-burning home heating appliances – your furnace, chimney, water heater, etc. – checked by a professional every year to make sure they are working properly.
- Install carbon monoxide alarms on every level of your home and outside bedroom areas.
- If you use a generator when the power goes out, keep it outside, far from windows and doors. Do NOT use a generator in your garage.
Carbon-monoxide deaths are more common than you might think. According to a new CPSC report:
- There were an average of 169 unintentional, non-fire CO poisoning deaths each year between 2007 and 2009.
- 1/3 of the deaths were associated with carbon monoxide from heating systems, such as furnaces.
- More than 40% of carbon-monoxide deaths are from using generators, such as operating them in a garage or basement, which is extremely dangerous.
- Most CO deaths occur in the colder months of the year: November, December, January and February.
In addition to carbon monoxide risks, space heaters also need to be handled with extra care to prevent unintentional fires. Space heaters are associated with an average of 100 deaths each year between 2008 and 2010.
Just last week, local fire officials reportedly blamed space heaters for fires at homes in Portsmouth, Va. (via Fox 43-TV) and Bristol Township, Pa. (via PhillyBurbs.com).
- Turn the space heater off when you go to sleep or leave the room.
- Keep the space heater at least three feet away from anything that can burn, including curtains and furniture.
Have working smoke alarms on every level of your home, outside bedroom areas and inside each bedroom.
Look for additional life-saving information in CPSC’s Carbon Monoxide Information Center.
This address for this post is: http://www.cpsc.gov/onsafety/2013/02/be-safe-check-your-home-heating/
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