More than 25,000 Americans are injured each year from tipping over heavy, unstable furniture and appliances like dressers, tvs and wardrobes, the majority of them children.
The Stop Tip-overs of Unstable, Risky Dressers on Youth (STURDY) Act is exactly what the long title states—legislation that aims to protect children and adults from being crushed by unstable furniture and appliances. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Bob Casey (D-PA), Amy Klonuchar (D-MN) and US Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) introduced the bill in the second week of June.
The mecca of cheap, DIY furniture, IKEA, was called upon specifically to enact safety protocol and checks for its furniture after Malm chests and dressers have been involved in the deaths of three children in tip-over accidents as recently as this year.
IKEA has issued a recall of nearly 30,000 dressers and have already implemented a program that offers education about stabilizing furniture and services to anchor the dresser to the wall. They will be offering full or partial refunds and free repair kits to secure the dressers to the wall for consumers who opt to keep the Malm.
The STURDY Act will mandate the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) to implement and enforce stricter safety measures on furniture and appliance manufacturers to protect consumers from tip-overs and the resulting injuries.
Furniture included in these regulations include dressers, bureaus and chests that have a high risk of falling over because they tend to be top-heavy with a narrow base.
The organization for industry standards, ATSM, will have six months from the date the bill becomes law to produce more rigorous safety standards for clothing storage units that may become an industry wide rule if it meets approval by the CPSC for safety. If the ATSM does not publish a new safety standard within this time frame, the CPSC will have to implement its own rule.
In 2015 the CPSC ran the educational campaign “Achor-It” to raise awareness about the risks of heavy, unstable furniture.
Recommended safety measures include installing anchoring devices for TVs, dressers, bookcases and other heavy furniture, keeping things like toys in a place where children can safely reach them without climbing on furniture, put heavy items in lower drawers to stabilize the unit, place the TV on a low base as close to the wall as possible if it cannot be anchored, ensure older TV models are anchored to walls or replaced with newer wall-mounted models.
Attorney John Yannone commented, “Large business need to lead by example to make sure that their products are safe for consumers to use and also provide more accurate warnings and information about all the potential hazards related to the good they sell.”
Statistics have determined that every two weeks a child is killed by unstable furniture. It is a good idea to take all necessary precautions with any large furniture or appliances, but if an accident were to occur, know that you have rights as a consumer when manufacturers do not account for safety in their designs!
