The head of the government agency that oversees recalls is making an pressing plea when it comes to getting a recalled baby product off the market.
Alexander Hoehn-Saric, chair of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, despatched letters Wednesday to Meta, the mum or dad corporate of Facebook, and Mattel, the maker of the Fisher-Price Rock ‘n Play sleeper, calling on the firms to do more to be certain the sleeper, recalled since 2019, isn’t utilized by customers.
In the letters, Hoehn-Saric stated his company has discovered that masses of recalled Rock ‘n Play sleepers are bought each month on Facebook Marketplace and different secondhand websites.
The CPSC issued an initial recall of Rock ‘n Play sleepers in 2019 after 30 kids had been reported to have died when they had been positioned in a sleeper and “rolled from their back to their stomach or side while unrestrained, or under other circumstances,” in accordance to the company.
The recall carried out to roughly 4.7 million sleeper merchandise, lots of which have been bought between 2009 and 2019 at primary outlets comparable to Target and Walmart and on-line on e-commerce websites like Amazon.
Hoehn-Saric famous in his letter to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg that the majority of secondhand listings for Rock ‘n Play sleepers are discovered on Facebook Marketplace.
“While CPSC staff informs me that Facebook Marketplace is responsive and moves quickly to remove listings that CPSC flags for Meta, CPSC should not be finding many illegal offers of life-threatening products on your platform,” Hoehn-Saric wrote. “Moreover, at best, CPSC is catching these unlawful products after they have been listed for sale and made available to the public; we do not know how many illegal sales occurred that we did not identify.”
He persevered, “Facebook is uniquely positioned to identify recalled and violative products like the Rock ‘n Play and stop their sale before they are listed. This would guarantee that these dangerous products are not sold, and further tragedies are averted.”
In the letter to Mattel CEO Ynon Kreiz, Hoehn-Saric known as on the corporate to reannounce the recall and be offering customers more of an incentive to forestall the usage of the sleepers.
“Fisher Price clearly has not done enough to incentivize consumers to act upon the recall. Nor have the company’s actions deterred a secondary market for this product,” Hoehn-Saric wrote. “It is incumbent on Fisher Price to motivate consumers to stop using the Rock ‘n Play and to destroy unused Rock ‘n Plays that may be in their homes. A refund of the full purchase price of all Rock ‘n Plays would be a good start in achieving these outcomes.”
In January, the CPSC re-announced the recall of the Rock ‘n Play sleeper, noting that no less than 8 further toddler deaths were related to the product following the authentic 2019 recall.
A Fisher-Price Rock n’ Play Sleeper.
CPSC
The CPSC additionally showed at the time that no less than 70 more toddler deaths were reported in connection to the sleeper, bringing the overall to over 100.
In January, the CPSC prompt customers to “stop using the Rock ‘n Play immediately and contact Fisher-Price for a refund or voucher.” The company additionally famous in the reannouncement of the recall, “It is illegal to sell or distribute the recalled sleepers.”
In reaction to the letter from Hoehn-Saric, a spokesperson for Fisher-Price advised ABC News the corporate “has worked diligently” to take away recalled sleepers from the market.
“Following the April 12, 2019 voluntary recall, Fisher-Price immediately stopped sales of Rock ‘n Play Sleepers,” the spokeperson stated in a remark. “Since then, the company has worked diligently to remove all recalled product from the market, highlighted most recently by a widespread re-announcement of the original product recall, made jointly with the CPSC on January 9, 2023.”
The Fisher-Price spokesperson additionally famous the corporate is thinking about expanding the refund quantity for customers.
“We have recently made clear to the CPSC our willingness to increase the proportional cash refund available to consumers who participate in the recall,” the spokesperson stated. “Fisher-Price and CPSC share a common goal: to remove this recalled product from the market. We look forward to collaborating with the CPSC to explore ways to promote participation in the recall. We urge both consumers and resellers that they should not use, sell, or donate the recalled Rock ‘n Play. If consumers have a recalled product, they should go to https://service.mattel.com/ to the ‘Recall and Safety Alert’ tab and follow the instructions on how to participate in the recall. We reaffirm our commitment to parents that we will always put their children’s safety first.”
A spokesperson for Meta advised ABC News that promoting recalled items on Facebook Marketplace is a contravention of the corporate’s insurance policies. In addition, the corporate works on its personal to take away recalled items from Facebook Marketplace, and encourages customers to file pieces that can violate the website’s insurance policies, in accordance to the spokesperson.
“Like other platforms where people can buy and sell goods, there are instances of people knowingly or unknowingly selling recalled goods on Marketplace,” the Meta spokesperson stated in a remark. “We take this issue seriously and when we find listings that violate our rules, we remove them.”
Safe sleep pointers from each the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Academy of Pediatrics say that caregivers must at all times position babies to sleep on their backs on a company, flat floor with none pillows, blankets or bumpers, and that babies must now not be positioned on prone merchandise for sleep.
Last yr, regulation referred to as the Safe Sleep for Babies Act went into effect, banning the production and sale of prone sleepers for young children.
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