
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, April 19, 1990                   TAG: 9004190680
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A/6   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

PILLOWS BLAMED IN INFANT DEATHS RECALLED

Manufacturers are recalling more than 600,000 infant pillows and cushions linked to the suffocation deaths of 19 infants, the government said today, but one senator says the action should have come sooner.

"Today we are announcing that nine of the 10 firms that made these cushions have agreed to recall their products from the public," Jacqueline Jones-Smith, chairwoman of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, said in a statement.

"It's about time," Sen. Alfonse D'Amato, R-N.Y., said Wednesday. "It's long overdue."

D'Amato criticized the commission last month for "an entirely too casual attitude" about taking legal action against the pillow manufacturers.

Nineteen children age 3 months or younger have been "found dead, lying stomach-down on one of these cushions" since September 1987, according to the commission. Three of the deaths occurred in January and February of this year. Ten deaths occurred last year.

Commission staffers explained that the pillows are dangerous because they are so soft they can conform to a baby's face. Because infants often are unable to roll over by themselves, they can suffocate if they are placed face down on the cushions.

The commission issued a warning March 6 urging parents to discontinue use of the pillows, but it did not move to ban the pillows because such actions can take longer than a voluntary recall, commission spokesman Dan Rumelt said.

The recall involves 627,825 small pillows or cushions filled with plastic foam beads.

Two retailers, J.C. Penney Co. Inc. and the Army and Air Force Exchange Service, which sold one brand of the cushions worldwide at post and base exchanges, have joined the recall effort. However, the commission said none of the reported deaths involved cushions sold by those retailers.

Recalled are:

467,000 "Mothers Helper" cushions made by Hollander Home Fashions in Newark, N.J.

110,000 "Gold Bug Support Sacks" made by Gold Inc. of Denver.

35,700 "Cozy Cushions" made by Pinky Baby Products of Houston.

12,000 "Cozy Baby" pillows manufactured by Cozy Baby Products of Mount Vernon, N.Y.

3,000 "Baby Minder" cushions made by The Fourth Little Pig of San Anselmo, Calif.

125 "Baby Sak" pillows made by Baby Sak of Pembroke Pines, Fla.

Consumers should contact the manufacturers or retailers for details on how to return or exchange the pillows for a refund or other products, officials said.

by CNB