Death in the Crib

The testimony reads like a surrealistic nightmare: cribs that strangle, glass doors that shatter and become makeshift guillotines, high-handlebar bicycles that break cheekbones, hot-water vaporizers that scald, power mowers that clip off fingers and toes, wringer washing machines that crush the young and unwary. But the gruesome catalogue is no dream; it is compiled from accounts of common product hazards listed in a study released last week by the National Commission on Product Safety. The study notes that consumer products are involved in most household accidents --and those accidents kill 30,000 people annually, permanently disable 110,000 and put 585,000 more in the hospital.

The seven-man commission, composed of representatives of law firms, business and Government, was appointed in 1968 by President Johnson and continued by President Nixon. Because it has broad bipartisan support, the group's findings have drawn considerable attention in Washington. They may lead to Government safety controls to replace industry's self-regulation, which the commission sees as "legally unenforceable and patently inadequate." A sampling of the findings:

TELEVISION SETS. Some 10,000 TV receivers a year catch fire, most of them color sets. The risks are greatly increased by poorly insulated wires or other flaws. Partly as a result of the publicity generated by the commission, many manufacturers have lately agreed to install fireproof components in color sets.

ARCHITECTURAL GLASS. About 100,000 people accidentally walk through glass doors each year. Some bleed to death before medical aid can arrive. One father testified that he barely managed to stop a glass shard dropping in its casing from falling like a guillotine blade on the neck of his dazed and bleeding son. Serious injuries occur because most doors are made with ordinary glass that can break at a slight blow. The solution is obvious: require that household doors be made with safety glass, which crumbles instead of shattering.

CHILDREN'S FURNITURE. More than 200 crib strangulations are reported each year, and near misses are common. An infant can slip his body but not his head between the slats of most cribs. No laws regulate the design of cribs or other infant furniture, and the industry has no safety standards.

FLOOR FURNACES. The metal grilles of gas-fired floor furnaces, which are often used in mobile homes, sometimes reach temperatures of 350DEG. That is hot enough to cook chicken or beef. For years, these grilles have been searing the unwitting with waffle-like patterns. They are the leading cause of burns among children under five; altogether, 30,000 to 60,000 people a year suffer furnace burns serious enough to require medical attention.

WRINGER WASHING MACHINES. More than 100,000 people are injured by such wringers each year. Not long ago, for example, a mother in Columbus, Ohio, found her three-year-old daughter strangled by a wringer. The industry has finally begun to install a device that releases the rollers when there is a tug in the opposite direction. Millions of older washers have no such equipment.

The chairman of the commission, Manhattan Attorney Arnold B. Elkind, a specialist in consumer law, emphasizes that most safety improvements would cost the manufacturers little. He rejects the traditional industry excuse that accidents occur because the product is misused. The item's design, Elkind contends, should make some provision for consumer error, just as cars are being built with more and more safety features to account for driver error.

The commission recommended that Congress create a permanent agency with wide powers to write and enforce safety standards for all consumer products. Senator Warren Magnuson, chairman of the Commerce Committee, immediately agreed to introduce a bill that would do just that. Chances for passage of some comprehensive legislation in 1971 are good, and congressional hearings on the subject are likely to pressure manufacturers into building more safety into their products. "This is one national commission," says Magnuson, "whose recommendations are going to lead not to the federal archives but to prompt congressional action."

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