Thrift Stores: Check products carefully before you sell.
Consumers: Check products carefully before you buy.
If you buy at thrift stores, here are some tips to help you make safer purchases.
Thrift Store Cribs
- Make sure cribs meet current national safety standards and are in good condition. Look for a certification seal. Check that crib slats are no more than 2 3/8 inches apart. Crib mattresses should fit snugly.
- If crib slats are too far apart, infants can slip between them and strangle. If the mattress doesn't fit snugly, infants can become entrapped and suffocate.
- Be sure there are no drawstrings around the hood and neck of children's upper outerwear clothing, such as sweatshirts. Other types of clothing fasteners, like snaps, zippers, or hook and loop fasteners (such as Velcro), should be used.
- Drawstrings at the waist should not extend more than 3 inches.
- Drawstrings can catch on playground and other equipment, and can strangle young children.
- Look for hair dryers with large rectangular shaped safety plugs.
- These immersion protection plugs prevent electrocution by shutting off the current if the hair dryer comes into contact with water.
- Make sure that halogen torchiere floor lamps have glass or wire guards over the bulb shield and the bulb is 300 watts or less.
- Glass or wire guards with lower wattage bulbs can prevent fires that occur when flammable materials like curtains get too close to the lamp. Wire guards are free. Call CPSC.
- Check that playpens and play yards have not been recalled. Recalled products include play yards with protruding hardware or rotating top rails that don't properly lock into place.
- Children can strangle if pacifier strings or clothing become entangled on protruding hardware. Children can be entrapped by folding play yards that collapse.
- Check to make sure the infant car seat carrier you are buying has not been recalled. Car seat carrier handle locks on recalled models can unexpectedly release when used as a carrier outside of a car.
- Infants can fall forward and strike the ground if the handle disengages.
- Make sure all spaces between the guardrail and bed frame and all spaces in the bed headboard and foot boards of the top bunk are less than 3 1/2 inches. Make sure there are guardrails on both sides of the top bunk.
- Children can become entrapped and strangle in the bed's structure or wedged between the bed and a wall and suffocate.
- CPSC has recalled millions of hazardous toy basketball nets. Check before you buy. Children can strangle on loops or openings in these basketball nets if the nets come unhooked from the rim or have knots that slide. If children put their heads into these openings, the nets can get tangled around their necks.
- Toy basketball nets can present a strangulation hazard to children.
- Do not buy older accordion-style child safety gates. Make sure that newer style child safety gates are used to keep children away from potentially dangerous areas, especially stairs.
- Older child safety gates that do not meet current safety standards can present strangulation and other hazards to young children.
- Do not buy bean bag chairs with zippers that can be opened. CPSC has recalled more than 12 million bean bag chairs.
- Young children can unzip bean bag chairs and choke or suffocate on the small pellets of foam filling.
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For more information about hazardous products, contact
U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission
Washington, DC 20207
Toll-free hotline: 1-800-638-2772
Website: www.cpsc.gov
This document about thrift store safety is in the public domain and is reprinted with permission of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.