NSW: Parents warned: recliner chairs pose risk to small children

AAP General News (Australia)
12-03-2001
NSW: Parents warned: recliner chairs pose risk to small children

Grandparents have been warned not to let small children play on recliner chairs after
a toddler was asphyxiated in one.

There are also concerns the chairs could sever a child's toes or fingers.

Newly appointed New South Wales Fair Trading Minister JOHN AQUILINA has launched new
voluntary industry guidelines for recliner chairs following a recommendation by a coroner.

He says a 21-month-old boy was asphyxiated in New South Wales last year while playing
on a recliner chair with his four-year-old brother.

The coroner who inquired into that case recommended that the chairs be made less hazardous.

Among the major hazards to young children are the risk of a child's head being trapped
in the gap between the chair and the footrest and the retraction mechanism trapping and
possibly severing a child's finger or toe.

AAP RTV maur/jjs/jh

KEYWORD: RECLINERS (SYDNEY)

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