CPSC Sets New Mandatory Safety Standard for Baby Changing Tables
The Consumer Product Safety Commission is setting a new children’s product safety standard for baby changing products. The agency’s final rule adopts as mandatory the latest voluntary industry standard on high chairs, ASTM F2388-18. Though the proposed standard issued by CPSC in 2016 included some changes from the industry standard in place at the time (see 1609290010), the latest version of the standard addresses CPSC’s concerns and is being adopted without modification.
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The standard would apply not only to baby changing tables, but also to other changing products, including changing table accessories, add-on changing units and contoured changing pads. "Changing table" is defined as "an elevated, freestanding structure generally designed to support and retain a child with a body weight of up to 30 lb (13.6 kg) in a horizontal position for the purpose of allowing a caregiver to change the child's diaper. Changing tables may convert from or to other items of furniture, such as, but not limited to, a dresser, desk, hutch, bookshelf, or play yard, may have pull-out or drop-down changing surfaces, and may provide storage for diapers and diaper products."
Other changing products covered by the standard include changing table accessories, which attach "to a crib or play yard designed to convert the product into a changing table typically having a rigid frame with soft fabric or mesh sides or bottom surface, or both”; add-on changing units, which are “a rigid addition to or separate product used in conjunction with an item of furniture that provides barriers to prevent the infant from rolling off the product when a diaper is being changed”; and contoured changing pads, which are "designed for use on an elevated surface which incorporates barriers to prevent a child from rolling off the changing surface.”
(Federal Register 06/26/18)