Washington — U.S. Senators Bob Casey, D-Pa., Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., announced the Senate passage of the Stop Tip-overs of Unstable, Risky Dressers on Youth (STURDY) Act, legislation to prevent furniture tip-overs resulting in injury or death. The STURDY Act has the support of a robust coalition of organizations, including consumer groups and Parents Against Tip-overs, and manufacturers and retailers like IKEA, the American Home Furnishings Alliance, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Room & Board, Crate & Barrel and Williams-Sonoma. Sens. Casey, Klobuchar and Blumenthal reintroduced the STURDY Act in February 2021. It was first introduced by Casey in June 2016.
“Because of inadequate safety standards and testing for furniture tip-overs, families across the country have experienced the unimaginable tragedy of losing a child to a furniture accident. I am proud to see that the STURDY Act has passed the Senate and is on its way to making much-needed reforms to make homes safer for children,” said Casey.
“No family should live in fear that their child could be severely injured or even killed by preventable accidents,” said Klobuchar. “By strengthening our furniture safety standards, the STURDY Act will help protect more children from the risks of furniture tip-overs. Now that this bill has passed the Senate, I look forward to seeing it signed into law.”
Since 2000, more than 460 U.S. children have died from tip-overs.
“The STURDY Act will enact strong furniture stability standards to prevent deadly tip-overs and protect children. I am pleased it passed the Senate and I will fight for its quick enactment into law so that no more families are forced to grieve the preventable death of their child,” said Blumenthal.
The STURDY Act would change the stability standard for manufacturers of clothing storage units from voluntary to mandatory—requiring companies to ensure their products are tested for safety and stability before being sold. According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), tip-overs cause an average of 25,500 emergency room-treated injuries each year as children are crushed, trapped or struck by furniture, TVs and appliances. Product instability that leads to a tip-over incident can be caused or affected by an unstable dresser design such as a small base and top heavy, use on a sloped or unstable surface such as carpet, not using a restraint device or using a defective tip-over restraint device, heavy objects placed on top of a dresser such as a TV, or multiple dresser drawers open simultaneously. The bill also requires rigorous testing measures for furniture, simulation of real-world use and warning requirements based on the most up-to-date safety standards.
