Graco says it sold dangerous bassinets under its brand name
Graco Children's Products Inc. said yesterday that some of the 900,000 Simplicity bassinets recalled last month by the Consumer Product Safety Commission carried the Graco brand.
Graco Children's Products Inc. said yesterday that some of the 900,000 Simplicity bassinets recalled last month by the Consumer Product Safety Commission carried the Graco brand.
Graco, based in Exton and a division of Newell Rubbermaid Inc., of Atlanta, sold the bassinets as part of a licensing agreement with Simplicity Inc., of Reading. The Graco bassinets were sold between 2001 and 2004.
The CPSC recalled the Simplicity three-in-one and four-in-one bassinets after a baby girl's death in Shawnee, Kan., on Aug. 21. The first bassinet death was reported in Missouri in September 2007. The problem is a metal bar that can choke a baby.
The CPSC, which investigated the Missouri bassinet death, updated the initial Aug. 29 Simplicity bassinet recall with additional model numbers Sept. 4.
Yesterday, the government added the Graco brand and noted that the Simplicity bassinets with a "Winnie-the-Pooh" motif were part of the recall.
Consumers were told to return the hazardous bassinets to stores for refunds or store credits. A list of the participating retailers is available on the CPSC recall page on the Internet.
Graco alerted the CPSC in late August that some Graco brand bassinets might be identical to recalled Simplicity bassinets, Graco spokeswoman Lindsay Lebresco said.
About 200,000 of the Simplicity-made bassinets may have carried the Graco brand, Lebresco said. Graco has a list of recalled model numbers on its Web site.
"We want to stress whether it is Winnie-the-Pooh or Graco or Simplicity, consumers should check the model numbers," Lebresco said. The bassinets were sold through many retailers, she said.
Graco ended its relationship with Simplicity with bassinets in 2004, she said.
Julie Vallese, a CPSC spokeswoman, said the number of recalled bassinets was not expanded with the addition of the Graco-branded ones.
Simplicity recently changed ownership, and its new corporate owner, SCFA Inc., says it is not liable for defects in older Simplicity products.