A safety checklist

A safety checklist

Bunk beds don’t have to be hazardous. Here’s a safety checklist from the American Home Furnishings Alliance and the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission:

Don’t allow children younger than 6 to sleep in a bunk bed or play unattended in a room with one.

The top bunk should have two guardrails no matter the age of the child. The open end should allow no more than 15 inches for exiting and entering.

Check the rails to ensure that they are secure and sturdy. They should be at least 5 inches above the mattress top.

Don’t substitute mattresses. Use the size the manufacturer recommends.

Be sure the ladder is sturdy and don’t allow the children to obstruct it with clothing or toys. Instruct them to use only the ladder and not chairs or other pieces of furniture to climb into bed.

Place a night light in the room so children can see the ladder if they get up during the night.

Make rules and make sure your children know and obey them. No more than one person on the top bunk at once. No horseplay on or under the beds. No items, such as hooks, belts or jump ropes, should hang from any part of the bed.

Never place the bed under a ceiling fan or light fixture.

Always enforce safety rules. Instruct overnight guests, who may be unfamiliar with the hazards, of your house rules.

Words of precaution

The American Society for Testing and Materials worked with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission on a new voluntary construction standard that took effect this year. The standard limits use of a corner post, finial or any vertical protrusion in the design of a bunk bed. “The restriction was written to reduce the possibility of something a child is wearing or carrying catching on the bed as the child exits the upper bunk,” Bill Perdue, vice president of the American Home Furnishings Alliance, said in a prepared statement.

The following caution also was added to the existing bunk beds warning label as of January 2005.

Strangulation hazard — Never attach or hang items to any part of the bunk bed that are not designed for use with the bed. For example, but not limited to, hooks, belts and jump ropes.

A look at statistics

36,000: Children and adolescents injured in bunk beds each year

572,580: Bunk-bed injuries treated in emergency rooms 1990-2005

75 percent: Children younger than 10 injured

50 percent: Children younger than 6 injured

30 percent: Injured by falls suffered serious cuts

25 percent: Injured by falls reported abrasions

20 percent: Injured by falls suffered fractures

10 percent: Injured by falls had concussions