The Illinois attorney general's office is warning parents not to use crib bumper pads in nurseries because they pose suffocation and strangulation hazards for babies.
The agency is also pressing the trade group that represents product manufacturers to take "immediate and substantial action" to address hazards of the products and to release a study on bumper pad safety that the group commissioned.
Both moves from Attorney General Lisa Madigan's office came in response to a Tribune investigation last week that found federal regulators have known for years that bumper pads pose a suffocation hazard for babies but have failed to warn parents. Bedding manufacturers and their trade group have been alerted to the issue but haven't taken action on the products, which wrap around the inside of a crib and tie to crib slats.
The Tribune found that although the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission has received more than two dozen reports of infant deaths associated with bumpers in the past two decades, there could be more deaths that the agency dismissed or did not fully investigate. The safety commission has since said it would re-examine the safety of the products by reopening files on babies' deaths and by assessing the safety of bumper pads already on store shelves.
Madigan said her office will launch a public awareness campaign telling parents not to use bumper pads, which can cause babies to suffocate because they lack the strength and motor skills to turn their heads if they roll against something that blocks their breathing.
"If (bumpers) are not safe to use in cribs, parents need to know," Madigan said.
Madigan's office will distribute a safety alert to groups including hospitals, public health agencies, advocacy organizations, retailers and trade groups in hopes they will spread the word to parents and other caregivers that bumpers are dangerous.
Madigan is also putting pressure on the companies that make and sell the products. Her office sent a letter to the Juvenile Products Manufacturers Association, which represents product manufacturers, asking the group to release a study it has spearheaded on bumper pad safety.
The trade group previously would not release the study to the Tribune, but said in a statement posted on its Web site that the study is being reviewed and might be submitted for publication in a medical journal.