Recalls of cribs, baby food. The Consumer Product Safety Commission has posted a recall notice of 1,000 Caramia “Diane” drop-side cribs. The slats on the cribs drop-side can detach from the top and bottom rails. And Nurture Inc. recalled selected varieties and date codes of HappyTot Stage 4 and HappyBaby Stage 1 and Stage 2 pouch meals that were sold in 300 retailers nationwide. Learn more in the full Safety blog post.
FDA fails to ban BPA. Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Margaret Hamburg last week announced a shift in her agency's stance on the health risks posed by Bisphenol A, a chemical used in clear plastic bottles and in the linings of food and beverage cans, but did not call for a ban on its use in food contact substances. Consumers Union, the non-profit publisher of Consumer Reports, had recommended that manufacturers and the government take that step after our recent tests of canned foods found that nearly all of 19 name-brand foods we tested contained BPA. Learn more in the full Safety blog post.
Wear a helmet on the slopes. This is skiing’s National Safety Awareness Week. The National Ski Areas Association’s list of facts shows that close to 40 people, on average, die skiing or snowboarding every year, and another 43 or so are seriously injured—and they mean serious—becoming paraplegics and suffering serious head injuries. Learn more in the full Safety blog post.
Lead in children's charms replaced by other toxic metal. Now that tough regulations governing lead are in effect, some Chinese manufacturers of cheap metal jewelry have turned to something just as dangerous—the heavy metal cadmium, according to aninvestigation by the Associated Press. "There's nothing positive that you can say about this metal. It's a poison," Bruce A. Fowler, a cadmium specialist and toxicologist with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told the AP. Scott Wolfson, a spokesman for the CPSC, said that his agency would investigate the charms and pendants cited in the story. He added: "We will not accept the substitution of dangerous heavy metals in place of lead." Learn more in the full Safety blog post.
