Feds sue company for refusing to recall baby loungers after 2 deaths
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission is suing an Oklahoma company over its refusal to recall nearly 180,000 infant loungers linked to the suffocation deaths of two babies.
The lawsuit against Ada, Oklahoma-based Leachco comes three weeks after the CPSC warned parents and caregivers against using the Podster, Podster Plush, Bummzie and Podster Playtime infant loungers. The products can prevent infants from breathing if they roll over, move, or are placed in a position where their nose or mouth are obstructed by the loungers, according to the complaint filed by the federal safety agency on Wednesday.
The agency wants to force Leachco to notify anyone who purchased its infant loungers of the danger and offer a refund.
"We've been talking to Leachco and identified this as a dangerous product due to the risk of suffocation following the deaths of two infants," CPSC Chair Alexander Hoehn-Saric told CBS MoneyWatch in a recent interview.
The infants, ages 17 days and four months, died in January 2018 and December 2015.
Leachco has resisted government pressure to pull its loungers, calling the loss of an infant "truly tragic" but defending its product as not intended for "unsupervised sleep."
The company, which has sold nearly 180,000 of the baby loungers since 2009, did not immediately return a request for comment on the CPSC lawsuit.
An industry trade group, the Juvenile Products Manufacturers Association, decried the CPSC actions as "regulatory overreach," arguing the agency should instead be educating parents on "only using baby products as intended."
Consumer groups applauded the CPSC's latest move.
"We urge families and childcare facilities who have these loungers to immediately stop using the products," Nancy Cowles, executive director of Kids in Danger said in an emailed statement.
The government's legal action against Leachco is an important step, said Rachel Weintraub, legislative director and general counsel with the Consumer Federation of America. "The CPSC should use all of the tools it has to remove products that pose suffocation risks to infants from the marketplace and from people's homes."
Golden, Colorado-based Boppy Company in September recalled about 3.3 million baby loungers linked to eight infant deaths. Like Leachco, Boppy said its "lounger was not marketed as an infant sleep product and includes warnings against unsupervised use."
An investigation by Consumer Reports published in September connected at least 28 infant deaths to lounging pads and nursing pillows, with seven of those deaths tied to Boppy products. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, babies should sleep on their backs on firm, flat surfaces free of bedding, padded bumpers or restraints.
The CPSC has long advised parents that the safest place for a baby to sleep is in a flat, bare crib. The agency last month approved a federal safety standard for crib mattresses, related to 139 fatalities between January 2010 and April 2021. The new rule, which takes effect in the fall of 2022, includes a requirement that mattresses be tested for firmness to reduce the risk of suffocation.
