Baby bath seats on the docket again.

A CPSC staff briefing package released May 8 recommends that the Commission issue a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPR) on baby bath seats.

This time the issue is NOT a ban. The commission dealt with that issue earlier and decided the products were not so hazardous as to deserve a government-banning rule. The agency concluded that in most cases, absent or inattentive caregivers were the cause of infant drownings associated with baby bath seats.

However, in the course of CPSC's research, it unearthed evidence concerning certain injuries or fatalities that occurred, or nearly occurred, even when caregivers were present.

The staff identified certain scenarios in which the design of the bath seat is thought to have contributed to the fatalities.

They include tip-over, which can submerge and trap the child or allow the child to escape the seat; entrapment, in which case the bath seat remains upright while the child becomes entrapped or submerged; and "coming out," in which the bath seat remains upright and the child comes out of the bath seat and drowns.

To address these scenarios, the staff researched the use of suction cups on bath seats and the need for smooth tub surfaces to make them work. Many bathtubs today have slip-resistant surfaces, which do not allow the suction cups to adhere to the surface.

To address these hazards, the staff is suggesting that the Commission propose three new requirements. They are: a stability performance requirement, a leg opening performance requirement, and a labeling requirement.

Staff has already worked with the industry and the voluntary standards organization ASTM to develop a leg opening performance requirement that would help prevent underwater entrapment. ASTM adopted that requirement in a revision to the existing standard. (5)

In July of last year, ASTM balloted five proposed revisions to the ASTM standard. One of the revisions is a performance requirement for the size of leg openings and occupant seating space that helps prevent entrapment and submersion incidents.

The five items were approved as part of the standard on March 10, 2003.

The new non-government standard will be published this summer, and the Juvenile Products Manufacturers Association (JPMA) says that the new leg opening requirements will be part of JPMA's certification program six months after that.

While CPSC staff has worked closely with ASTM in developing these revisions, staff still does not believe the new standard will address all of the risks. In particular, the staff thinks the revised standard won't be effective for tip-over or "coming-out" problems associated with bath seats.

So the staff wants the Commissioners to issue a NPR proposing three new requirements: (1) stability performance requirement to address tip-over; (2) leg opening requirement to address entrapment and submersion, and (3) labeling requirement to address the "coming-out" problem. (6)

Since industry leaders and voluntary standards representatives are still working to revise the ASTM standard, it seems reasonable that the additional requirements may become part of the standard. The bath seat briefing will not be scheduled until late July, so the voluntary standards community still has time to respond.

(5) Briefing Package on Notice of Proposed Rulemaking for Baby Bath Seats, U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, Washington, DC, May 8, 2003.

(6) Ibid.