Feinstein Introduces Bill to Prohibit Sale of Unsafe Used Cribs by Secondhand Stores and Thrift Shops
June 28, 2000

Washington, DC – U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) today introduced legislation banning the resale of unsafe baby cribs, a practice that has been blamed for causing an average of 45 deaths and 9,000 injuries a year.

“While there are strict guidelines on the manufacture and sale of new cribs,” Senator Feinstein said. “There are still 25 to 30 million unsafe cribs sold throughout the United States in ‘secondary markets’ such as thrift stores and resale furniture stores. These cribs should be taken off the market, and, either be made safe or destroyed.”

Senator Feinstein introduced this legislation at the request of the Danny Foundation, a national nonprofit organization established after the tragic injury of Danny Lineweaver of Alamo, Calif.

At the age of 23 months, Danny was injured while he was trying to climb out of his crib. Danny caught his shirt on a decorative knob on the cornerpost of his crib and hanged himself. Though his mother was able to perform CPR the moment she found him, Danny lived in a semi-comatose state for nine years and died in 1993.

Since his injury, Congress has passed legislation mandating safety standards for the manufacture of new cribs, but nothing has been done to address the millions of secondhand cribs sold each year.

“There are nearly four million infants born in this country each year, but only one million new cribs sold,” Feinstein continued. “As many as half of all infants are placed in secondhand, hand-me-down, or heirloom cribs. These cribs may be unsafe, and may in fact threaten the life of the infants placed in them.”

Each year, at least 45 children die and 9,000 children are hospitalized as a result of injuries sustained in cribs–more than from all other nursery products combined.

A companion measure was introduced by Rep. Ellen Tauscher (D-Calif.) earlier this year and is awaiting action by the House Commerce Committee.