Officials Expand Recall Of Simplicity Bassinets

Dangerous bassinets may still be on store shelves, state and federal safety officials said yesterday, and they have asked retailers to expand a recall and examine their inventory for defects.

Retailers such as Babies R Us and Buy Buy Baby began pulling Simplicity 3-in-1 and 4-in-1 convertible "close-sleeper" and "bedside sleeper" bassinets from their stores last week after the Consumer Product Safety Commission warned that two infants had died after their heads got caught in the bassinets' metal bars.

To help distinguish between safe and unsafe products, the CPSC supplied retailers with model numbers for bassinets included in the recall.

But investigators from the Illinois attorney general's office found that Simplicity bassinets with model numbers not originally included in the recall still had the detachable fabric side panel, which exposes an opening between two metal bars where an infant's head can get caught. They informed the CPSC, which immediately instructed retailers to check each bassinet to see whether the fabric is permanently affixed or attached with Velcro like the older Simplicity bassinets.

"Retailers now are put in the unprecedented position of opening every package and looking for defects," said Cara Smith, deputy chief of staff for the Illinois attorney general's office.

The CPSC asked retailers to recall the products last week after SFCA, the company that recently bought the assets of the bassinets' manufacturer, Simplicity Inc., refused to do so. SFCA, an affiliate of Bethesda-based private-equity fund Blackstreet Capital Management, continues to sell children's products under the Simplicity brand. SFCA's attorney Rick Locker said the company was not responsible for products it did not make.

The CPSC did not include Simplicity bassinets shipped since March in its recall request to retailers because SFCA said the cloth panel is not detachable on these new models.

The discovery of additional bassinets subject to the recall has raised new issues. "There is some question as to whether SFCA distributed old product that contains this defect, and the agency is actively investigating whether that occurred," CPSC spokeswoman Julie Vallese said.

SFCA's Locker said that in the rush to get information to the CPSC there was a miscommunication about which model numbers were affected and that when the company realized there was a problem, it informed the CPSC.

"Our goal is to do everything possible to help CPSC and retailers remove all defective Simplicity Inc. products from the market and help consumers obtain accurate information," spokeswoman Amanda Lahan said in an e-mail.