Dresser makers pressed to more quickly improve safety standards

Safety advocates accused furniture manufacturers Thursday of resisting much-needed changes they say could help reduce the risk of dresser tip-overs, tied to scores of deaths and thousands of injuries each year.

"We don't have to wait for a body count before we change the standard to address obvious hazards," said Don Mays, a product safety consultant.

The accusation came at a meeting in Conshohocken where furniture company representatives, safety advocates, and staff from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission gathered to discuss the industry's standard for dresser stability.

That test requires that dressers stay upright when a 50-pound weight is hung on a drawer, meant to simulate the pull of a small child.

The meeting came a month after the top official at the commission warned the industry to adopt a tougher voluntary standard or face a mandatory one imposed by his agency.

Such a change would likely mean added costs for many dresser manufacturers. About two dozen manufacturers' representatives attended Thursday's meeting, most remaining at odds with safety advocates.

The debate has largely been sparked by the safety commission's review of deaths of toddlers killed when unsecured Ikea dressers toppled onto them. Last week, the agency disclosed a seventh such death.

The furniture representatives said, as they have before, that they do not want to change the standard without proof it is inadequate. They asked for data showing deadly tip-overs involving dressers that meet the current safety guidelines. An Ikea model line involved in several deaths did not meet the industry's self-imposed stability guidelines.

Agency staff maintained that such a request is unrealistic. They said information was limited because it comes mostly from police departments investigating deaths, not trained safety investigators.

Despite the gridlock, the standards committee has undergone some small shifts that could speed the pace of change.

The longtime furniture industry committee chairman, Bill Perdue, was removed last month, sources familiar with the decision said, because he was seen as delaying progress. Perdue, a North Carolina resident who, as head of regulatory affairs for the American Home Furnishings Alliance, is a powerful industry voice, declined to comment on the matter.

Ikea - which recalled 29 million dressers this summer after years selling units that did not pass the test - played an unusually active role at Thursday's meeting.

Jens Ekwall of Ikea was one of the few industry members advocating for a more lifelike stability standard. He said his company had been running such tests on its own products.

The current standard "is a good base," Ekwall told the group. "But it is not representing the real-life situation in our customer's home."

Safety advocates say the standard should be more realistic, suggesting that a stability test should include placing a dresser on a carpet or filling its drawers with material meant to simulate clothing.

At Ekwall's suggestion, the committee created a subgroup to study the issue. But the committee remained strongly divided on other proposed major changes, such as raising the threshold weight in the test from 50 to 60 pounds.

Richard Rosati, the committee's interim chairman, said the group would continue discussions. He said his goal was to improve the voluntary standard so federal regulators do not impose one.

tnadolny@phillynews.com

215-854-2730@TriciaNadolny

Correction: A previous version of this story misspelled the name of consultant Don Mays.