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US: CPSC updated safety standard for infant bouncer seats

SEPTEMBER 2019 - Relevant for: childrens products

On 6 September 2019, the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) published a Notice of direct final rule¹ updating the safety standard for infant bouncer seats to ASTM F2167-19 without modification in Federal Register. The rule will take effect from 14 December 2019, unless CPSC receives a significant adverse comment within 30 days of this notice.

Besides editorial changes, ASTM F2167-19 revised² the requirements of content and visibility of on-product warning labels. It requires the warnings shall be unobscured and visible when an occupant is in the infant bouncer seat, and requires an additional phrase in the warning content to address fall hazards and suffocation hazards.

An infant bouncer seat is defined as a freestanding product intended to support an occupant in a reclined position to facilitate bouncing by the occupant, with the aid of a caregiver or by other means. The intended occupants are infants who have not developed the ability to sit up unassisted.

They have been linked to many injuries and deaths due to suffocation and fall hazards. CPSC cautions parents and caregivers to use the bouncers only on the floor and stop using it when baby starts trying to sit up or has reached 20 lbs. If the baby falls asleep in the bouncer, parents should put the baby in its crib to reduce the airway compression and suffocation risks which commonly happened in similar products inclined sleepers.

[1] 16 CFR Part 1229

[2] USA Infant bouncer seat standard ASTM F2167-19 published