12/12/2023 0 Comments Twins ikea book shelf fellWhen CR asked the CPSC if the agency was investigating the Hemnes eight-drawer dresser, a spokeswoman said confidentiality laws bar the agency from commenting. Even if a dresser is involved in injuries or death, “there is no easy mechanism to take a dresser off the market,” Kaye says. With a voluntary standard, the government does not have the authority to require a recall solely because a product fails to meet the standard. In the meantime, with only a voluntary standard in place, it’s up to the company-not advocates, parents, or the government-to determine that a product needs to be recalled, says Elliot Kaye, commissioner of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the government agency that oversees product safety. ![]() We believe this issue should be addressed to help the testing more accurately reflect real-world scenarios.” ![]() That means the weight and the drawers are not in motion during the test. “Right now, furniture stability testing is a static test, not a dynamic one. The concerns highlighted by DeLong are shared by James Dickerson, Ph.D., CR’s chief scientific officer. “What that says to me is that this standard is not good enough,” she said. She pointed out that her son was just 30 pounds, less than the weight used in the test, and that children don’t necessarily open just one drawer at a time. Several Ikea dressers passed even our most rigorous evaluations.)ĭeLong, who declined to discuss the specifics of the dresser manufacturer or model involved in her son’s death due to the terms of her legal settlement, recently spoke at an ASTM meeting, where she addressed what she sees as shortcomings in the dresser standard. (CR has not tested this particular dresser but has looked at some others, including some dressers that are 30 inches tall and under. If Ikea won’t take this action on its own, the government should intervene.” “Ikea should immediately stop selling the dresser, contact existing owners, and offer them a refund in exchange for getting the dresser out of their homes. “The Hemnes eight-drawer dresser has been linked to tip-overs and a child’s death, and there’s no excuse for Ikea’s failure to recall it,” says William Wallace, senior policy analyst at CR. Ikea says that because the Hemnes eight-drawer dresser passes that test, it doesn’t need to be recalled.īut safety advocates say that the decision to recall a product should also be based on its safety in the real world. The stability test for dressers involves hanging a 50-pound weight on each drawer while it is opened and the rest are closed, and seeing whether the dresser tips over. The voluntary safety standard for dressers (and for thousands of other consumer products) is established through ASTM International, an independent organization that includes industry, government agencies, and consumer groups (including Consumer Reports). “When assembled and used according to the instructions provided, all Ikea chests of drawers, including Hemnes eight-drawer, are safe to use,” Bradley said.īut parents and safety advocates say these tip-over incidents reveal flaws with both the test used by the industry to determine when a piece of furniture is safe, and with the recall process itself. spokesperson Leticia Bradley said that the dresser meets the furniture industry’s voluntary stability standard, and so was not included in the recall of other Ikea furniture that the company launched in 2016. ![]() The lawsuit was recently settled between DeLong and Ikea.ĭespite the tragedy, Ikea still has not recalled the dresser. ![]() His mother, Meghan DeLong of Lakeland, Fla., found him trapped and unresponsive under the dresser, according to the police report. But about five months later-on Mother’s Day, May 14, 2017-the same kind of Ikea dresser, a Hemnes eight-drawer model, fell on another 2-year-old boy in his bedroom just after he woke up, according to public documents filed in a lawsuit against Ikea.
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