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Two questions haunted Linda Ginzel and Boaz Keysar after their son Daniel strangled in the collapsed side rail of a portable crib - a crib that had been recalled five years earlier after three similar deaths. How could a crib like the Playskool Travel-Lite ever have made it to the market? And once it was recalled, why were children still dying in it? Soon, they began asking a third question: What could they do to spare other parents the pain they were suffering? As I reported Sunday, the Chicago couple refused to sign a gag order when they settled a lawsuit this month against Kolcraft, the crib's maker, and Hasbro, which put its prestigious Playskool brand name on it. They wanted to preserve their right to share what they learned in their 3 1/2-year odyssey. What they and others have discovered as a result of Danny's death should be a wake-up call to anyone who thinks our system of product regulation offers adequate protection against hazards, especially in children's products. Consider: Only a handful of children's products, including full-size cribs, car seats, pacifiers and rattles, are covered by mandatory safety standards. The recall process governed by the Consumer Product Safety Commission is of questionable effectiveness and highly politicized. At best, it brings in well fewer than half the number of items produced - partly because the language of a recall announcement is typically negotiated to make it sound less alarming, to minimize its impact on a company's reputation.
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