Drawstrings-Strangulation and entanglement hazards to children.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) announced September 1, 2011 that Sunsations Inc., of Virginia Beach, Va., has agreed to pay a civil penalty of $60,000. The penalty agreement (pdf) has been provisionally accepted by the Commission (5-0).

The settlement resolves CPSC staff allegations that Sunsations knowingly failed to report to CPSC immediately, as required by federal law, that it sold children's hooded sweatshirts with drawstrings at the neck from March 2008 through November 2010. Children's upper outerwear with drawstrings, including sweatshirts, sweaters and jackets, poses a strangulation hazard to children that can result in serious injury or death.

In December 2009 and again in March 2011, CPSC and Sunsations announced recalls of more than 15,000 children's sweatshirts that were sold in Sunsations stores in Virginia Beach, Va., Ocean City, Md. and North Carolina.

Continue reading; www.cpsc.gov