CPSC approves safety standard for bassinets and cradles

Washington – A new safety standard from the Consumer Product Safety Commission aims to improve cradle and bassinet safety.

The standard, approved Sept. 30, is based on a voluntary consensus standard (ASTM F2194-13). The CPSC standard includes modifications to the ASTM version, such as changing to a pass-fail grade for mattress flatness tests, exempting bassinets of a certain size from the mattress flatness test, adding a removable bassinet bed stability requirement and requiring the use of a newborn dummy rather than an infant dummy in stability tests.

According to CPSC, 426 cradle/bassinets incidents – including 132 fatalities – occurred between November 2007 and March 2013.