SAN ANTONIO – Every 17 minutes, someone is injured by furniture, a TV or an appliance tipping over on them, and about every 10 days, a child dies from a tip-over incident. Consumer Reports is calling for stricter standards after testing two dozen dressers for stability.
The statistics hit home for Janet McGee. Her 22-month-old son, Ted, suffered fatal injuries when a dresser fell on top of him.
“When I opened the door even further, right in front of me was his dresser that had fallen forward,” she said. “Immediately, ‘Oh, my God. It is so quiet in here. He has to be under it.’”
The dresser was an Ikea Malm model. Ikea later recalled the dresser and has since changed its design. The company did not respond to requests for comment regarding Ted’s incident.
To find out about the stability of dressers currently being sold, Consumer Reports bought 24 models from different manufacturers and evaluated them based on three different tests.
Thirteen dressers passed all of the tests. Eleven failed at least one test, according to Consumer Reports.
Dressers from Pottery Barn, Epoch and Sauder, among others, passed the 60-pound test. Models from South Shore and Ameriwood, among others, failed a 50-pound test.
Testers suspended weights from opened drawers to simulate the weight of a child.
Officials with both South Shore and Ameriwood said their products meet voluntary safety standards.
How can you tell if a dresser in your home is secure?
“That’s the thing about all of this. You can’t tell whether it’s going to be tipsy just by looking at it,” said James Dickerson, Consumer Reports' chief science officer.
Consumer Reports is pushing for mandatory safety standards and recommends furniture be properly anchored to a wall. Inexpensive anchor kits are widely sold at discount stores and furniture stores, as well as online.
As for McGee, she agrees that manufacturers should design and build safer furniture.
“I should be able to purchase something and put it in my child’s room and it (will) be safe,” she said.
See the models Consumer Reports tested below:
Consumer Reports Furniture Tip-Over Tests
The video below shows how to anchor furniture to a wall: