WASHINGTON – Parents Against Tip-Overs, a nationwide coalition of parents advocating for child safety, said it is pleased to see Ikea is taking steps to educate consumers about the dangers of furniture tip-overs.
However, the group said the retailer also needs to emphasize the importance of designing or in some cases redesigning furniture that is “inherently unstable.”
The group specifically responded to a recent announcement that the company is requiring shoppers to acknowledge tip-over risks involving furniture, including clothing storage units such as chests and dressers.
“PAT is pleased to see Ikea is finally being proactive in educating their customers about the risk of furniture tip-over and the importance of anchoring furniture to the wall,” the group said. “However, we want to make it clear that anchoring is not the long-term solution for tip-over prevention.”
The group said that according to a survey published by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission last year, some 41% of respondents said they did not anchor furniture to the wall. This was the case even after the respondents were exposed to information about the need to anchor furniture due to the risk of tip-overs.
“Parents simply don’t believe it can happen to them, even when they know someone else it has happened to,” the group said, referencing the latest CPSC report on tip-overs that indicates there has not been a significant decrease in tip-overs from 2000-2019, “despite a significant increase in educational awareness for the need to anchor furniture to the wall.”
“Ikea’s solution glosses over the root of the problem: unstable furniture falling on children, causing life-long injuries or deaths to children under six years old,” the group said. “PAT appreciates Ikea’s new initiative to raise awareness, but sincerely hopes the company is putting as much, if not more, effort into redesigning all their furniture to be inherently stable. The responsibility for keeping the consumer safe from tip-over injuries and deaths lies firmly with manufacturers; they have the ability to create stable furniture.”
The group also called on Ikea, the American Home Furnishings Alliance and all furniture manufacturers to work with it to establish a mandatory standard to prevent such incidents. This includes public support for the STURDY Act (Stop Tip-overs of Unstable, Risky Dressers on Youth) in Congress.
Ikea was not immediately available for comment.
I'm Tom Russell and have worked at Furniture/Today since August 2003. Since then, I have covered the international side of the business from a logistics and sourcing standpoint. Since then, I also have visited several furniture trade shows and manufacturing plants in Asia, which has helped me gain perspective about the industry in that part of the world. As I continue covering the import side of the business, I look forward to building on that knowledge base through conversations with industry officials and future overseas plant tours. From time to time, I will file news and other industry perspectives online and, as always, welcome your response to these Web postings.
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