STATE OF NEW JERSEY
216th LEGISLATURE
PRE-FILED FOR INTRODUCTION IN THE 2014 SESSION
Sponsored by:
Assemblywoman LINDA STENDER
District 22 (Middlesex, Somerset and Union)
Assemblywoman PAMELA R. LAMPITT
District 6 (Burlington and Camden)
SYNOPSIS
Requires hospitals and birthing facilities to provide new parents information about crib safety.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
Introduced Pending Technical Review by Legislative Counsel
An Act concerning crib safety and supplementing Title 26 of the Revised Statutes.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. a. The Department of Health and Senior Services shall compile and make available to each hospital and birthing facility in the State informational literature on crib safety, including, but not limited to, information about product recalls, federal standards on the manufacture and sale of cribs, and information from the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission on how to keep babies safe in cribs, bassinets, and play yards.
b. The department shall require each hospital and birthing facility in the State to provide parents with the informational literature specified in subsection a. of this section. The informational literature shall be distributed to each parent present during the infant's birth, by the staff designated by the hospital or birthing facility, prior to the mother's discharge, as part of the hospital or birthing facility's discharge procedures.
c. As used in this section, "birthing facility" means an inpatient or ambulatory health care facility licensed by the Department of Health and Senior Services that provides birthing and newborn care services.
2. The Commissioner of Health and Senior Services, pursuant to the "Administrative Procedure Act," P.L.1968, c.410 (C.52:14B-1 et seq.), shall adopt rules and regulations to effectuate the purposes of this act.
3. This act shall take effect immediately.
STATEMENT
As of June 28, 2011, all cribs manufactured and sold (including resale) must comply with new federal safety standards. In light of several highly publicized incidents involving drop-side cribs, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) published new rules that: prohibit the sale of drop-side cribs; require that a crib's slats, mattress supports, and hardware be more durable in their construction; and require manufacturers to submit cribs to more rigorous testing to show compliance with the new safety standards.
This bill, therefore, mandates that the Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS) compile and make available to each hospital and birthing facility in the State informational literature on crib safety, including, but not limited to, information about product recalls, federal standards on the manufacture and sale of cribs, and information from the CPSC on how to keep babies safe in cribs, bassinets, and play yards. "Birthing facility" is defined in the bill as an inpatient or ambulatory health care facility licensed by the DHSS that provides birthing and newborn care services.
DHSS would require each hospital and birthing facility to provide parents with the informational literature which would be distributed to each parent present during the infant's birth, by staff designated by the hospital or birthing facility, prior to the mother's discharge, as part of the facility's discharge procedures.