Children's sleepwear standards too lax, safety advocates say.

Parents across the country are unwittingly exposing their children to grave danger each time they dress the tots for bed at night.

This was the warning that members of the Safe Children's Sleepwear Coalition (SCSC) recently delivered at a press conference in Washington, D.C. The group--an umbrella organization for burn prevention advocacy groups--called the conference to protest the Consumer Product Safety Commission's (CPSC) 1996 decision to relax the flammability standard for children's sleepwear. That decision, coalition advocates say, has increased the threat of death or injury to children from burns caused by flammable sleepwear.

The original standard, issued in the 1970s, required that all sleepwear made in children's sizes 14 and smaller "self-extinguish"--or not burn completely--when exposed to flame. But in April 1996, CPSC commissioners voted 2-1 to exempt snug-fitting pajamas and nightclothes for infants younger than nine months. The change was based on evidence that tight-fitting sleepwear is not easily ignited and that when it ignites, it burns slowly and may self-extinguish because of lack of oxygen to feed the flame.

The commission's decision to change the rule was based in part on studies showing no burn injuries associated with tight-fitting sleepwear, said CPSC spokesman Ken Giles. The amendment was also designed to address the desire of many parents to dress their children in natural fabrics rather than the flame-resistant polyester required under the old standard.

But the amended standard is not effective because parents often buy clothes a little larger than their children's sizes to allow room to grow, according to SCSC representatives. They also noted that many children receive "hand-me-downs" from older siblings or other children, and these garments are often ill-fitting.

These concerns were supposed to have been addressed by an industry-driven national information campaign designed to help consumers select safe sleepwear for children. The CPSC agreed to relax the standard with the understanding that the American Apparel Manufacturers Association and its members would develop an education campaign for consumers and retailers. But this has been held up because of "technical issues on how to measure and define `snug fitting,'" Giles said.

Sleepwear coalition representatives said they hope that focusing attention on the amended standard will generate sufficient public pressure to persuade the CPSC to reconsider its rule change. Absent that, change seems unlikely. Giles noted that "the issues raised at the press conference were the same as those raised two years before when the standard was changed. And the commission's data [on burn injuries] hasn't changed either."

Information about the Safe Children's Sleepwear Coalition, burn injuries associated with children's sleepwear, and the coalition's efforts to change the CPSC standard can be found at http://www.traumafdn. org/trauma/alerts/alerts.html.