In an effort to reduce the number of deaths to children who become entrapped under garage doors with automatic openers, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) today issued final rules for automatic residential garage door openers. The rules, which will be published in the Federal Register, include revised entrapment protection requirements for all automatic residential garage door openers manufactured on or after January 1, 1993 for sale in the United States. The rules also include certification requirements and recordkeeping requirements for garage door opener manufacturers. The entrapment protection requirements are part of a Congressional mandate in the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 1990. The legislation requires that automatic residential garage door openers manufactured on or after January 1, 1991 conform to the entrapment protection requirements of the Underwriters Laboratories (UL) Standard for Safety, UL 325. The legislation also requires that residential garage door openers manufactured on or after January 1, 1993 comply with additional entrapment protection requirements developed by UL.
The rules issued today specify these additional entrapment protection requirements. The revised standard requires that residential garage door openers contain one of the following:-External entrapment protection device, such as an "electric eye" which "sees" an object obstructing the door without having actual contact with the object. Another similar device would be a door edge sensor. The door edge sensor acts much like the door edge sensors on elevator doors.-Constant contact control button which is a wall-mounted button requiring a person to hold in the control button continuously for the door to close completely. If the button is released before the door closes, the door would reverse and open to the highest position. The remote control transmitter will not close the door with this option.Additionally, all newly-manufactured garage door openers must include a sticker warning consumers of the potential entrapment hazard. The sticker is to be placed near the wall mounted control button.
The entrapment protection requirements are aimed at reducing the potential for entrapment between the edge of the garage door and the floor. Since 1982, the Commission received reports of 54 children between the ages of two and 14 who died after becoming entrapped under doors with automatic garage door openers. CPSC urges consumers with automatic garage door openers to test the openers according to the manufacturer's recommendations, to make sure they have a reversing feature. The reversing feature should then be tested monthly. If the door fails to reverse, adjust the door according to the owner's manual or have it inspected by a professional repairman. Additionally, owners of automatic garage door openers should teach their children about garage door safety and keep transmitters and remote controls out of children's reach. The certification and recordkeeping requirements issued today finalize rules proposed by the Commission on March 18, 1992. The certification rule takes effect 30 days after publication in the Federal Register.
The rule requires a label on automatic residential garage door openers indicating that the opener conforms with the entrapment protection requirements of the rule. The label allows consumers to distinguish between complying and non-complying garage door openers. The label is standardized for non-UL listed garage door openers; UL listed openers can continue to use the UL logo as a certificate of compliance. The recordkeeping rule, which also takes effect 30 days after publication in the Federal Register, requires manufacturers to maintain written records of tests that demonstrate the basis for certification. CPSC is issuing these rules as part of its mission to protect the public from unreasonable risks of injury and death associated with consumer products. The Commission's objective is to reduce the estimated 28.5 million injuries and 21,600 deaths associated each year with the 15,000 different types of consumer products under CPSC's jurisdiction. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission is charged with protecting the public from unreasonable risks of injury or death associated with the use of
thousands of types of consumer products under the agency’s jurisdiction. Deaths, injuries, and property damage from consumer product incidents cost the nation more than $1 trillion annually. CPSC is committed to protecting consumers and families from products that pose a fire, electrical, chemical orCPSC's work to help ensure the safety of consumer products - such as toys, cribs, power tools, cigarette lighters and household chemicals -– contributed to a decline in the rate of deaths and injuries associated with consumer products over the past 40 years. Federal law bars any person from selling products subject to a publicly-announced voluntary recall by a manufacturer or a mandatory recall ordered by the To report a dangerous product or a product-related injury go online to www.SaferProducts.gov or call CPSC's Hotline at 800-638-2772 or teletypewriter at 301-595-7054 for the hearing impaired. Consumers can obtain news release and recall information at www.cpsc.gov, on Twitter @USCPSC or by subscribing
to CPSC's free e-mail newsletters.Beginning Jan. 1 in California and nationwide, if you buy a new garage door and have it installed, you also will be required to purchase a sensing device to prevent injury or death to children or pets when it closes.If you have your garage door or door operator repaired by a professional, he will be required to advise you (if the door and motor do not pass a reversing test) that you need a sensor.If you do not agree to have the sensor installed, he will be required to post a red warning sticker outside your garage.If you don`t need your garage door replaced or repaired, you won`t be required to buy a sensing device. But if you`re concerned about safety, you may want to test your door and get one anyway.Since 1982, when national statistics started being kept, 44 children younger than 14 have died in accidents involving automatic garage door openers. There are no figures on how many pets have been injured or killed.``Getting this legislation passed is really a genuine effort to save lives,`` said Lee Adler, director of government relations for the Far Western Garage Door Association, the trade association that sponsored the legislation in California and 10 other Western states.
``There have been a lot of incidents - people, kids, pets getting hurt - that could have beenprevented.``The California legislation conforms to a federal law passed a year ago. The federal law establishes guidelines the state laws on garage door openers must follow. Here`s a portion of what the California legislation says:``There are over 20 million automatic garage door openers in the nation today. New automatic garage door openers should possess an automatic reversing safety device in compliance with current voluntary standards.``Although automatic garage door openers have a life expectancy of approximately eight years, it is possible for individual openers to last as long as 40 years.``And that`s where part of the problem lies.Older garage door openers that are even as ``young`` as five years do not have the degree of technology available now to reverse and prevent injuries or death when the door hits something as it closes. If you want to find whether your system works, try what the garage door opener industry calls the ``2-inch block test.``Place a 2-by-4 (or 2-by-whatever) flat on the floor of the garage directly below where your door will touch.
Lower the door automatically. If the door does not reverse when it hits the 2-by, it fails the test.You may be able to adjust the tension on the door so that it will reverse. There may be a screw on the operating device that controls tension. But sometimes, if you turn the screw too much to increase its power to reverse, you severely decrease the ability of the motor to lift the door.``The Underwriters Laboratories people figured that 2 inches was the thickness of a child`s throat,`` according to Dennis Petryk, who operates under the name of Precision Garage Door in Anaheim, Calif. ``The idea is that, when the door comes down - even with the new sensing devices - it still may cause some injury to a child, but the bottom of the door won`t pin a child`s throat to where the child can`t get any air.``Petryk said he was helping a man who had a child in a stroller with him. The man picked up the baby from the stroller, walked into his house, pushed the button to close the garage door, ``. . . and when it came down it crushed the empty stroller,`` Petryk said.
There are two types of sensors that will control the reversing procedure in line with federal and state requirements. One is an optical sensor, an infrared device. Petryk explained it this way:``An optical sensing device comes in two parts located on each side of the door not more than 6 inches from the (garage) floor. One part shoots an infrared beam to the other part. If the beam is broken at any time when the door is closing, the door will automatically reverse.``The other device is a ``touch sensor.``John Gray, president and chief executive officer of the Genie Co., the nation`s largest manufacturer of garage door opening products, said this will be sold by his company as an option. It is attached to the bottom of the door. New Owner Demolishes O.j. Simpson MansionDark meaning of bubble-gum Pumped Up Kicks is tough to chewHandshakes For All, Including Simpson, As Fung Ends Testimony Therapists see no developmental benefits from seatsNicole Simpson's Grisly Death Described To Jury'He was trying to protect her'