Nov. 24 (Bloomberg) -- Drop-side cribs are likely to be banned because of the danger they pose to infants, the head of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission said after the death of four children led to the recall of 2.1 million of the beds.

“We’re in the process of rule-making, and we will take a hard look at this, but I think in the future these drop-sides will be banned,” Inez Tenenbaum, the chairman of the CPSC, said on NBC’s “Today Show” today.

Privately held Stork Craft Manufacturing Inc. of British Columbia recalled 2.1 million cribs yesterday after four infants became trapped and suffocated, the safety agency said. The CPSC is moving in the right direction by working to develop mandatory standards on crib safety, the Consumer Federation of America said today.

“Cribs are supposed to be the safest place to put your baby,” said Rachel Weintraub, director of product safety and senior counsel for the Washington-based advocacy group, in an interview. “What all of these recalls are showing is that voluntary standards are entirely inadequate and that mandatory standards and mandatory laws are necessary to protect our children.”

Companies have recalled more than 7 million cribs, bassinets and play yards in the past two years because the products posed suffocation risks and other dangers to babies, according to the CPSC.

Plastic Hardware

Drop-side cribs have a side that parents can lower to more comfortably put babies into the bed and lift them out. Plastic hardware on the cribs can break or deform or the side that drops down can be installed upside-down, creating a space where infants can be entrapped, the safety agency said.

Representative Jan Schakowsky, an Illinois Democrat, said in an e-mailed statement today that she is asking Tenenbaum to make writing crib-safety rules “a major priority.”

ASTM International, a West Conshohocken, Pennsylvania-based group that sets voluntary safety standards, last week eliminated its guidelines for drop-side cribs, citing complaints about hardware failures.

ASTM’s action will probably lead most major retailers to stop carrying such cribs, said Donald Mays, senior director of product safety and technical policy at Consumer Reports magazine in Yonkers, New York.

“It’s going to change the marketplace,” Mays said. Tenenbaum’s agency should either ban drop-side cribs or develop more effective safety tests, he said.

‘Grossly Inadequate’

“The current federal regulation for cribs is grossly inadequate and they need to move quickly to update that regulation to ensure that cribs are safe after years of use,” Mays said in an interview.

While the agency is writing rules to ensure that cribs meet durability and safety standards, it has “just not been acting as quickly as we should have,” Tenenbaum said in a CBS television interview today.

“I have just been appointed a few months ago,” Tenenbaum, who was named by President Barack Obama and took office in June, said. “This case came in front of me just a few weeks ago. The next day, after hearing about it, I had the top staff come to my office and we worked through a plan to recall this crib.”

The action announced yesterday is the largest involving cribs by the consumer protection agency and follows a recall of about 535,000 drop-side cribs by Stork Craft in January.

The Stork Craft cribs were sold since 1993 by retailers including Wal-Mart Stores Inc., BJ’s Wholesale Club Inc. and online at Babiesrus.com. Some were sold under the Fisher-Price brand, the CPSC said.

China, Canada

Parents and caregivers should stop using the cribs, which were made in China, Canada and Indonesia, the consumer- protection agency said. The recall includes 968,000 cribs sold in Canada. The company couldn’t be reached for comment.

Stork Craft recalled about 536,000 cribs in January because metal supports could crack, causing the mattress to collapse. At that time there were reports of 10 incidents with minor injuries.

To contact the reporters on this story: Mark Drajem in Washington at mdrajem@bloomberg.net; Molly Peterson in Washington at mpeterson9@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: November 24, 2009 16:39 EST