by Aimee Keenan-Greene 

The Consumer Product Safety Commission today says so-long to drop-side cribs.

The cribs have faced years of scrutiny and safety issues because of a variety of assembly issues and strangulation deaths. 

Today, the CPSC lead by chairperson Inez Tenenbaum corner stoned their Safe Sleep Campaign with the unanimous new standards ruling to take all drop-side cribs off the market in six months, by June 2011.  They revoked previous crib standards.

All new cribs will be required to have stationary sides that can withstand the force larger children sometimes exert on the railings. Crib rails will no longer lower into a position that makes accessing the child easier for the parent.

Users of cribs in public settings, like daycares, have one year to ditch the drop side cribs and purchase new safer beds to meet the new mandatory standards.

The CPSC says while manufacturers and retailers are used to meeting product standards, more than 59,000 childcare facilities will now have to conform to performance standards. An additional 53,000

hotels and motels will need to follow the new regulation.  The CPSC estimates these establishments alone have 935,000 cribs that need replacing,  at a total cost of $467 million. CPSC Commissioner Anne Northrup said almost every large daycare center who spoke to them had asked for 5 years to comply.

The CPSC heard first hand testimony from mothers who have lost children to crib accidents, some as long as 13 years ago, who have been campaigning for safer standards ever since.

The longer cribs are used, the more hazards they present to kids, says the CPSC.  Commissioner Robert Adler says "children are involuntary risk takers and deserve all the protection we can give them."

The CPSC says to further reduce the risk of child sleep injuries, always lay a baby on their back, remove all loose pillows and bedding, and use only a fitted bottom sheet designed for the mattress - to reduce the risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.

The CPSC has a toll-free hotline which it encourages consumers to use to report product safety problems or to request information about product safety. The number is 800-638-CPSC