Consumer Safety Agency Finalizes New Regulations on Water Beads and Infant Neck Floats
But the Consumer Product Safety Commission's future is in jeopardy amid cuts, consolidations, and changes in leadership
Update: On Aug. 22, shortly after this article was published, Douglas Dziak, a commissioner of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, announced that he would soon be stepping down from his position, leaving the agency under the leadership of just one commissioner, acting CPSC chair Peter Feldman.
Federal regulators have finalized safety standards for two dangerous products that many advocates say should never have been on the market in the first place.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission, a federal agency responsible for protecting consumers from dangers posed by toys, baby gear, and other products, announced on Thursday that it had voted to approve new mandatory safety standards on water beads and infant neck floats, two categories of products that have been associated with severe injuries and deaths of babies and children.
The CPSC also announced it is taking steps to advance a long-awaited rule on explosion-prone lithium-ion batteries, one that had previously been finalized and then repealed amid political conflict at the agency over the past few months.
Water Beads
Water beads are tiny, superabsorbent polymer balls that expand dangerously when accidentally ingested, inhaled, or inserted in the ear or nose. Children and babies have been severely and permanently injured, and in some cases have died after coming into contact with these beads, as detailed in a CR investigation in 2023. The CPSC says that an estimated 6,300 water-bead-related ingestion injuries were treated in U.S. emergency rooms between 2017 and 2022.
Infant Neck Floats
Infant neck floats are small, inflatable or foam rings that go around a baby’s neck to help keep them afloat in a bath or pool. They’re meant to be used under constant supervision, but parents have reported injuries and close calls that occurred even while they were within arm’s reach. Babies’ heads have slipped through the openings into the water below when the floats weren’t quite inflated enough, when the floats developed leaks, or when they became slippery with soap, for instance. Two babies in neck floats who were left unattended in bathtubs died.
In 2022, the Food and Drug Administration and the CPSC warned consumers not to use infant neck floats. The CPSC’s rule now sets certain performance standards and requires clearer warnings to caregivers about the risks. The rule will take effect 180 days after it is published in the Federal Register.
When they first proposed the rule in October 2024, some of the commissioners thought an outright ban would be more appropriate than setting safety standards. CR safety experts say parents should not use infant neck floats at all.
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Lithium-Ion Batteries
Feldman also announced on Thursday that the agency was advancing a rule that would improve the safety of lithium-ion batteries in e-bikes, e-scooters, and other similar devices by submitting it for review by the White House.
As a 2022 CR investigation detailed, e-bikes and scooters are increasingly popular but persistently dangerous. The number of electric bikes imported into the U.S. doubled from 2020 to 2021. But when the lithium-ion batteries that power these products are poorly made or become overcharged, the results can be deadly explosions and fires.
If finalized, the CPSC’s rule would reduce the risk of fires by mandating designs that prevent batteries from overcharging and discouraging the use of incompatible chargers.
Feldman said in the announcement, “Together, these actions deliver stronger protections for the American people and reaffirm that CPSC is hard at work safeguarding the public from unreasonable risks associated with consumer products.”
The Agency’s Fate Is Still Unclear
These safety rules have been in process by agency staff for years, but their ability to finalize and approve them has been in doubt lately as a result of several months of upheaval in the agency’s leadership.
In May, when the traditionally apolitical agency was still led by a bipartisan group of five commissioners, the three appointed by President Joe Biden voted to finalize and publish the proposed lithium-ion battery bill in the Federal Register. The two appointed by Republicans, including Feldman, voted against doing so—not because of the contents of the rule, they said, but because it defied a White House executive order from February that prohibited independent agencies from publishing any new regulations without approval from the executive office.
A week after a majority voted to publish the rule—and the same day they attempted to stop staffers from the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, from joining the agency—President Donald Trump fired three commissioners: Mary Boyle, Alexander Hoehn-Saric, and Richard Trumka, Jr. They were reinstated by a federal judge in June, and then removed again when the Supreme Court sided with the administration in July. With two commissioners (the acting chair and the remaining commissioner, Douglas Dziak), the agency currently has a quorum necessary for voting on safety rules, but that will change if Dziak isn’t replaced when his term ends in October.
Feldman’s announcement on Thursday said that the agency was advancing the lithium-ion battery rule again but that rather than unilaterally publishing it, it was submitting it for review by the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), a process consistent with the administration’s executive order.
When CR asked why the CPSC was able to finalize the rules about water beads and neck floats but not the one about lithium-ion batteries yet, a spokesperson said that “all three rules went through OIRA clearance. While we can’t discuss deliberative process with other executive branch agencies, the battery rule has been determined to be regulatorily significant and merits more fulsome review under the process.”
One day earlier, the agency also announced the withdrawal of at least 10 other safety rules and proposed rules that it said “no longer align with agency priorities.”
Meanwhile, the CPSC’s capacity to remain an independent regulatory body with the authority to issue rules at all is still unsettled. That’s because of ongoing interest by the Trump administration in folding it into a newly created division within the Department of Health and Human Services.
On July 21, 121 organizations, including Consumer Reports, sent a letter to congressional leaders imploring them to preserve the CPSC as a fully funded, fully staffed, independent, and bipartisan agency. The coalition argued that HHS doesn’t have the statutory authority to carry out the CPSC’s work, so any recalls, regulations, and enforcement actions would be subject to legal challenges by manufacturers or importers. They wrote that this would potentially leave “a regulatory black hole through which dangerous consumer products can freely enter the stream of commerce.”
While the agency’s future is still undecided, CR’s safety experts and other advocates applauded the news on Thursday about the progress made on the three rules governing water beads, infant neck floats, and lithium-ion batteries, which have all been in the works for a long time.
“The approval of the two standards for water beads and neck floats was long overdue and will help keep our children safe,” says Oriene Shin, manager of safety advocacy at CR. “While we applaud the advancement of the lithium-ion rule, we strongly urge the administration to move through the review process swiftly and help prevent devastating fires from putting people and their homes at risk. It is also critical for the CPSC to continue its work in an independent and timely manner.”
