CPSC staffers urged seven changes to the ASTM F1917-12 infant bedding standard in their recommendation for a Section 104 rule for crib bumpers. Commissioners' ballots were due at the PSL deadline. There would be a 75-day comment period.
The changes would:
- Create a new definition for crib/bumper liner: "Any product intended to be placed against any portion of the interior perimeter of a crib, and that reduces or eliminates an infant’s access to the crib sides, slats, spindles, or the spaces between these components."
- Apply the 2-inch maximum thickness test to all bumpers and liners, add a minimum rate of 0.5 inches per second for units to pass through test fixtures, and add a test fixture surface finish requirement of 1.6 Ra (roughness average).
- Add a bumper firmness requirement with a related test. This compression assessment would use a test device based on the Australian/New Zealand standard, AS/NZS 8811.1:2013 on infant sleep surfaces.
- Revise the bumper attachment mandate and test using a head probe to asses potential for passage between a bumper and the spot along the perimeter most likely to fail.
- Apply the tie strength requirements to all means of attachment and add strength requirements and tests for decorations involving a 0.22-inch diameter finger probe rod.
- Revise warning mandates related to content, format, definition of conspicuous, definition of permanence, and tests. There also would be requirements for indicators to distinguish long- from short-side bumpers.
- Add an instructional literature requirement based on provisions in ASTM's ad hoc recommendations.
Read the briefing package at bit.ly/2keWmGQ.
