We have to stop the CPSC.  Although they claim to be seeking the safety and protection of children, they are a) doing so in ways that grossly undermine our freedoms and b) making rulings that, in the long run, are not going to have the intended result.

Remember a year or two ago when the issue was product testing?  Testing children’s products for lead, pthalates, etc. sounds great at first blush.  The problem was, many of us knew that not only was the expense going to put small businesses (which generally use materials rarely, if ever, contaminated with these sorts of compounds) out of business, but that, sooner or later, the big companies were going to pay their way out of the testing.  Sure enough, Mattel was the first company to get an exemption from the required third-party testing.  Mattel, whose lead-contaminated products were supposedly the reason for the regulations in the first place.  (Aren’t you reassured to know that Mattel’s made-in-China products are confirmed by their own Chinese lab to be safe?  I didn’t think so.)

Well, they’re at it again.  The CPSC has now banned the sale, and resale, of drop-side cribs.  You know, the ones we can actually reach to get our children out of.  The reasoning is that “over 30 deaths” (it’s 32) have occurred as a result of these cribs, over the past ten years.  Now, I don’t mean to be callous here – I truly am sorry for the families who lost babies because of these cribs – but I do mean to be objective.  Let’s consider a few things.

• First of all, faulty equipment should absolutely be recalled.  There is a big difference between recalling a malfunctioning product and outlawing an entire product category.  It is implied (though certainly not stated) by the CPSC that some of those deaths, at least, were probably caused by faulty or malfunctioning cribs.  It is not fair to indict all of the properly-functioning cribs because of the faulty ones.  That’s kind of like saying that all cars should be outlawed because when a car doesn’t have functioning brakes, people can get hurt.
• Second of all, let’s take a closer look at those numbers. I know that statistics are truly irrelevant when your child is the statistic.  But we need to keep things in context, too, because it is a fact of life that nothing is 100% free of risk.  Thirty babies in ten years is about three babies a year.  Seventy babies under a year old drown each year, but we aren’t outlawing bathtubs, toilets, or even swimming pools.  Forty-two (again, under 1) die each year as a result of fire or burns, but we aren’t outlawing matches, lighters, fireplaces, or smoking.  (I got my statistics from the CDC, and I’m averaging based on 1999-2007 reports, because they’re the newest ones I can find online.)  More than 2,250 die of SIDS (and another 2,250 of other unidentified causes; I’m not sure what the difference is).
• Third, what is the likelihood of this solving the problem?  Even if only three babies are dying each year due to a particular cause, it’s worth fixing what we can to save those three babies, right?  But is this likely to improve the situation?  It seems to me it’s more likely to make the problem worse. I, for one, would literally not be able to reach an infant in a crib with immovable sides.  How many more babies are going to be dropped?  Or – less likely but still possible – stuck in their cribs because their parents can’t remove them quickly in the event of a house fire, flood, hurricane, etc.?  Even if this slightly reduces the number of deaths, doesn’t it seem likely to drastically increase the number of injuries?
• Fourth, what about our freedoms as Americans?  Shouldn’t I, as a mother, be able to weigh the options and determine whether I think it’s more likely that my child will get stuck in a drop-side crib or get dropped in the process of being removed from a stationery-sided crib and, as a result, which is likely to be safer for us?

“Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.” – Benjamin Franklin

If we want to have a certification agency that puts its own stamp of approval on things, for consumers to use as reference, that’s one thing.  (Maybe some people would choose to only buy CPSC-certified products, and that would be their right.  Personally, I think it’s much safer for my children to buy a wooden toy from another mama on Etsy than to buy a “tested and passed” plastic toy from Mattel.)  But this is America; our nation was built on the ideas of freedom and free enterprise, and we should not have anyone telling us what we are or are not allowed to buy or sell.  This agency does not have any Constitutional authority to exist and, Constitutionally, only the Congress may make (nationwide) law.  It’s time for us to stand up for this and stop “rolling over and playing dead”!

Please, please call your congressmen.  Please pass this on.  Please stand up for our rights as Americans to take responsibility for ourselves and our own families, and to be free from the government’s babysitting us or trying to keep us in giant plastic bubbles.