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Deaths prompt US recall of cribs made in China

US authorities on Friday announced a recall of 1 million cribs made in China after at least two babies became trapped and died and more than 60 other incidents were reported.

The recall of Simplicity Inc cots was the latest to hit Chinese-made consumer products, after the large-scale recalls of millions of Mattel toys found to contain lead paint or dangerous parts.

The US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) said on Friday it was recalling older-style Simplicity cots because the drop-side could became detached, creating a gap which could either trap or suffocate a child.

A nine-month-old baby and a six-month-old were known to have died when the drop-side of their cots were installed upside down and collapsed, the commission said in a statement.

The commission was also investigating the death of a one-year-old in a newer Simplicity crib in which the drop-side was installed upside down.

"CPSC is warning parents and caregivers to check all Simplicity cribs to make sure the drop-side is installed right side up," the commission said in a statement.

"The drop-side failures result from both the hardware and crib design, which allow consumers to unintentionally install the drop-side upside down.

"This, in turn, can weaken the hardware and cause the drop-side to detach from the crib. When the drop-side detaches, it creates a gap in which infants can become entrapped," it said.

The commission added it was aware of seven cases where babies had become trapped in their cribs and 55 other incidents. It was also investigating two cases that occurred even though the cot had been correctly put together.

The cribs "were sold in department stores, children's stores and mass merchandisers nationwide from January 1998 through May 2007 for between 100 and 300" US dollars, the commission said.

The recall follows consumer concern about the safety of Chinese products after a series of scares involving popular toys such as Thomas the Tank Engine, Barbies and Polly Pockets.

MATTEL APOLOGY

But earlier on Friday, US toy giant Mattel issued a startling apology to China, saying the vast majority of the recent recalls of Chinese-made products were due to design flaws it had committed itself.

"It is very important for everyone to understand that the vast majority of those products recalled were the result of a design flaw in Mattel, not through the manufacturing flaw in China's manufacturers," said Thomas Debrowski, Mattel's executive vice president of worldwide operations.

"Mattel takes full responsibility for those recalls," Debrowski told Li Changjiang (李長江), the head of China's General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, the nation's top agency for product quality.

"I would like to apologize personally to you, the Chinese people and all of the customers who have received toys that have been manufactured," Debrowski said in a meeting in Beijing.

The unusual move reflects how dependent El Segundo, California-based Mattel has become on China.

"Mattel certainly must have been facing some pressure to do that, because you can't imagine why they would be trying to push this story along any further," said Eric Johnson, a professor of operations management at Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire.

He suggested Mattel may want to prevent China from imposing more taxes or regulations.

"China's embarrassment in all this could lead to that, and I think they were trying to head that off with this apology," Johnson said.

Peter Navarro, a business professor at the University of California, Irvine, and the author of The Coming China Wars, also suggested Mattel was trying to avoid punitive measures.

"Mattel is worried that the Chinese government is going to make it difficult for them to produce, put their costs up and hurt their stock price," Navarro said.

In a prepared statement issued later on Friday, the company said some media accounts of its meeting with Chinese officials had been mischaracterized.

"Since Mattel toys are sold the world over, Mattel apologized to the Chinese today just as it has wherever its toys are sold," the company said.
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