WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal safety regulators are urging consumers to stop using baby pillows that have been linked to 10 infant deaths but are still being sold on Facebook Marketplace, despite being recalled two years ago.
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission said Tuesday that Boppy Newborn Loungers are no longer legally for sale but it has found thousands of them on Facebook Marketplace since the 2021 recall began.
The agency wrote to Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Facebook parent Meta Platforms, on Tuesday saying it had made repeated requests to have recalled items taken down from Marketplace. It cited the Boppy loungers as “a particularly egregious example” of a product that puts consumers at risk.
“Until these sales are stopped, babies will continue to be at risk of death,” CPSC Commissioner Richard Trumka said in a statement. He added that Meta “has not taken effective action” in response to CPSC’s average of one thousand takedown requests made each month over the last year for the Boppy loungers.
The Boppy Co. recalled more than 3 million of its infant pillows due to suffocation risk in September 2021 — with reports of eight deaths associated with Boppy’s loungers between 2015 and 2020. The CSPC said Tuesday that two additional babies died shortly after the recall began.