Choking Hazards: Are Current Product Testing Methods for Small Parts Adequate?

Abstract

Choking on small parts remains one of the leading causes of death and injury in infants and toddlers. The current method of testing for small parts, created by the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), has become outdated and has yet to be changed despite the many deaths and injuries of children. The method uses a device called the small parts test fixture (SPTF) that is supposed to mimic the size of a fully expanded throat of a toddler. If a product does not fit inside the cavity of the SPTF, then it is deemed safe to play with because it “will not fit” in the esophagus of a child. The present study obtains a dataset of products recalled by the CPSC within the last twelve years due to choking hazards/incidents and discovers that a noteworthy amount of the children’s products have parts that are larger than the fixture size and are still capable of causing choking. This study indicates that a larger SPTF size must be implemented by the CPSC in order to prevent future choking incidents on small parts.