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Cosco Inc., in cooperation with CPSC, is voluntarily recalling
about one million Options 5 High Chairs, Model 03-286, manufactured
from December 1997 through August 11, 2000. We have received reports
that 57 children were hurt when the high chairs seat separated from
the frame or when the seat restraint separated from the seat back. None
of the children were seriously injured, but because we do not want any
child to be hurt in one of our products, we are urging consumers to
send immediately for a free kit designed to help them assemble and use
our high chair correctly.
The kit includes a new warning label and instructions and a new handle
for use when the high chair is set in the recline position for infants.
The Options 5 high chairs were originally sold with a recline handle
that could be pivoted up and down to facilitate use as a booster seat.
The new recline handle stays in an extended position, ready to be placed
over the towel bar to help secure the seat to the high chair frame.
When the handle is in place, the seat cannot slide down. (Insert two
photos or line drawings - one showing a folded down recline handle which
is not placed over the towel bar, and one showing the new extended handle
Properly placed over the towel bar. A big X should be drawn over the
first picture.),
In announcing the recall, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission
released a home video showing a baby falling when the high chair's seat
detached from the frame while the high chair was being used in the recline
position. Fortunately, the baby in that video was not hurt. Cosco wanted
to find out why this incident happened, so we asked Exponent Failure
Analysis, a highly respected independent engineering and scientific
consulting firm, to examine the home video and the high chair.
Exponent's experts conclude that the colored recline handle was not
over the towel bar and the two seats guides were not in place on one
side. When properly assembled according to the instructions, the seat
cannot suddenly detach the frame.
We want to make sure consumers use our high chairs correctly. Even though
there have been complaints about only a fraction of a percent of the
high chairs sold, and the injury rate for our high chair is much lower
than the industry average, we are recalling the Options 5 high chair.
We urge consumers to send for our free kits, read our new warning labels
and instructions, and make certain their high chair is correctly and
securly assembled.
For more information, visit Cosco's web site at www.coscoinc.com
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