A safe and secure Infant Sleep Product is one of the most important purchases that a parent can make for their family. Australian families suffer unimaginable losses when these products fail. Unsafe products can cause a child's death or serious injury and can have lasting and irreversible impacts on people's lives.
CHOICE has written a policy submission to the Australian Consumer and Competition Commission (ACCC) supporting its call for stronger regulation of infant sleep products. CHOICE strongly supports a ban on the supply of harmful inclined sleep products in Australia alongside holistic mandatory safety and information standards for Infant Sleep Products.
Inclined Sleep Products are extremely harmful and can contribute to suffocation or positional asphyxiation of infants. This prohibition will bring Australia in line with international jurisdictions, including with New Zealand and Canada, who have a ban on the sale of inclined sleep products with a sleep surface incline of greater than 7 degrees.
CHOICE supports the ACCC's proposal for a mandatory safety and information standard for Infant Sleep Products. Our National Association of Testing Authorities accredited laboratory regularly reviews Infant Sleep Products such as bassinets that fail key safety requirements and risk causing death.
CHOICE also supports updating the mandatory standards for household cots and portable cots and allowing compliance with trusted international standards. This approach will improve the safety of cots on the market and bring Australia's product safety regime in line with international best practice.
Download submission (PDF)
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