Welcome to the April edition of the Alston & Bird CPSC Recall Snapshot.

In March, the CPSC approved a new federal standard for infant bathtubs. The CPSC stated that the new standard, which incorporates the most recent voluntary standard developed by ASTM International (ASTM F2670-17), is intended to improve the safety of infant bathtubs and to prevent drownings. The new standard has several requirements, including latching/locking mechanism requirements, static load testing, and drowning/fall warnings, markings, and instructions. This new standard comes after the CPSC received 247 incident reports involving infant bathtubs from January 2004 to December 2015, 31 of which involved a fatality. Of the 216 nonfatal incidents, 32 involved an injury to an infant. The CPSC reported that the most frequent reported hazards were drowning/near-drowning when a child was left alone, protrusions/sharp edges, product failures, and entrapment issues. The effective date for the new standard is six months after the rule is published in the Federal Register.