U.S. recalls 1 million cribs made in China

The maker of Simplicity and Graco cribs on Friday recalled about 1 million of the beds after the deaths of at least two infants, including one in California.

“Don’t take a chance at all,” said Scott Wolfson, a spokesman for the federal Consumer Product Safety Commission, which announced the voluntary recall by Reading, Pa.-based Simplicity Inc., one of the nation’s largest crib manufacturers.

“If you are a parent or caregiver that has one of these cribs impacted by these recalls, your baby should not sleep in that crib tonight.”

The recalled cribs, which were manufactured in China and sold at major retailers nationwide, feature a “drop-side” railing that can pull away from the mattress. Infants can become trapped in the resulting gap and suffocate.

The recall is the latest in a summer of worry for parents, who have seen name-brand toys, bibs and other childhood necessities removed from retail shelves because of safety concerns.

It’s also yet another smudge on the reputation of Chinese-made goods.

The drop-side failures result from the hardware and crib design, which make it possible to install the drop-side incorrectly, the commission said. Installing the drop-side railing upside down greatly increases the risk of failure, although the commission said it was aware of two incidents that occurred when the drop-side was correctly installed.

The commission announced the recall after inquiries by the Chicago Tribune as part of a crib-safety investigation.

A 9-month-old and a 6-month-old died in cases where the drop-side railing was installed upside down, the commission said. The older infant was Liam Johns, who died in Citrus Heights, Calif., in April 2005, according to the boy’s father, Chad Johns.

“The fact that the recall finally came through has lifted a lot of weight from our shoulders and given us closure,” said Johns, who now lives in Roseville, Calif., with his wife, Nicola. “We wanted to make sure no other families suffer through the same situation that we did.”

The family’s attorney, Charles Kelly of San Francisco-based law firm Hersh & Hersh, said he alerted the commission about the problem more than two years ago and that the agency took too long to act.

“The crib is supposed to be the safe sanctuary for your baby and instead it turns into a deathtrap,” Kelly said. The Johnses sued Simplicity and settled in June for an undisclosed amount, he said.

A 1-year-old died in a newer crib model that has not been recalled but is being investigated by the commission. That infant also died after the drop-side was installed upside down.

The recall includes only cribs manufactured with older-style hardware, which has a flexible tab at the bottom of the lower track. The commission said it was aware of seven infant entrapments and 55 other incidents involving such cribs.

Newer hardware has a flexible tab at the top of the lower track and a permanent stop at the bottom. The drop-side, when installed correctly, has a rounded top rail with a decorative groove and a plain, flat rail on the bottom.

“It’s very important to us to make sure that our products are safe,” said Ken Waldman, president of Simplicity, a family-owned company founded in 1947. “One injury is too much. To the parents, I reach out to them. It’s just awful, and this is nothing that a parent should have to go through.”

Anyone who owns older-hardware models should stop using the cribs and contact Simplicity for a free repair kit.

Those with newer models are advised to check that the drop-side of their cribs is properly installed. If the drop-side is upside down, do not try to reinstall the railing because the hardware might have become weakened or damaged, commission spokeswoman Kim Dulic said. Those consumers also should contact the manufacturer for a repair kit.

“The best advice is for consumers to immediately check these cribs,” Dulic said. “What we definitely want to do is prevent any more incidents from happening.”

The recalled cribs were sold nationwide from January 1998 to May 2007. The cribs were carried at department stores, children’s stores and mass retailers and cost $100 to $300.

There have been several recalls of Chinese-manufactured products in recent months, including toothpaste, seafood, fans, tires, pajamas and pet food. Potential dangers from high-powered magnets and unsafe levels of lead paint led El Segundo-based Mattel Inc. to pull more than 21 million toys from store shelves since Aug. 1.

Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), who has called for the creation of an import czar to coordinate import safety efforts, said the crib recall “shows serious and widespread weaknesses in the Chinese system of protecting consumers with the goods it produces.”

In the baby section at a Target store in Glendale on Friday afternoon, worried mothers expressed concern about the range of products that have been recalled lately.

“I do think there isn’t much oversight about what is being imported into the country,” said Andrea Hutchman of Silver Lake, who was shopping for baby shampoo and clothes with her 15-month-old daughter. “Those are really big omissions.”

Hutchman, a 40-year-old actress, said parents could only do so much to protect their children from harmful products.

“It seems like you’d have to go to pretty broad extremes to avoid everything,” she said.

Colleen Nagi, a stay-at-home mom from Los Feliz, said the recent recalls had made her more cautious about the products she buys for her 5-month-old daughter.

“If I see that it’s made in China, I will think twice about it,” Nagi, 34, said. “You just never know.”

The recalled Simplicity crib models include: Aspen 3 in 1, Aspen 4 in 1, Nursery-in-a-Box, Crib N Changer Combo, Chelsea and Pooh 4 in 1. The recall also involves the following Simplicity cribs that used the Graco logo: Aspen 3 in 1, Ultra 3 in 1, Ultra 4 in 1, Ultra 5 in 1, Whitney and the Trio.

The recalled cribs have one of the following model numbers, which can be found on the envelope attached to the mattress support and on the label attached to the headboard: 4600, 4605, 4705, 5000, 8000, 8324, 8800, 8740, 8910, 8994, 8050, 8750, 8760 and 8996.

For more information, call Simplicity’s recall hotline at (888) 593-9274 or visit www.simplicityforchildren.com.

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andrea.chang@latimes.com

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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Crib recall

What

Simplicity Inc. is recalling about 1 million Simplicity and Graco cribs.

Why

A “drop-side” railing can pull away from the mattress and create a gap in which infants can become trapped and suffocate.

Models

The Simplicity models are: Aspen 3 in 1, Aspen 4 in 1, Nursery-in-a-Box, Crib N Changer Combo, Chelsea and Pooh 4 in 1. The Graco models are: Aspen 3 in 1, Ultra 3 in 1, Ultra 4 in 1, Ultra 5 in 1, Whitney and the Trio. The cribs have one of the following model numbers, which can be found on the envelope attached to the mattress support and on the label attached to the headboard: 4600, 4605, 4705, 5000, 8000, 8324, 8800, 8740, 8910, 8994, 8050, 8750, 8760 and 8996.

For more information

Call Simplicity’s recall hotline at (888) 593-9274 or visit www.simplicityforchildren.com.

Source: Consumer Product Safety Commission