Unsafe cribs will remain in use

Jeremy Hobson: Tomorrow, it becomes illegal to sell baby cribs with sides that can drop down. The Consumer Product Safety Commission has banned them for safety reasons.

But as Marketplace’s Eve Troeh reports they won’t disappear immediately.

Eve Troeh: Drop-side cribs got popular because they make it easier to pick up a baby. But dozens of babies have died in the past decade when the panels have dropped suddenly.

Scott Wolfson at the Consumer Product Safety Commission says that danger led to the new law.

Scott Wolfson: The safest and toughest standards in the world.

But businesses that use cribs — day care centers, hotels and crib rental companies — have 18 months to buy new ones.

Ami Ghadia at Consumers Union says the extra time defrays the big replacement costs.

Ami Ghadia: They may need that additional time because they don’t have resources to turn all their cribs over at the same time.

Parents won’t care as much about the cost to business as they do about safety. That’s why Scott Wolfson at the Consumer Product Safety Commission says most companies will act as fast as they can.

Wolfson: So a lot of them are out there in the marketplace right now placing their orders, and not waiting.

The more new cribs they buy now, the more concerned parents they’ll keep as customers.

I’m Eve Troeh for Marketplace.