BABIES CAN DROWN IN BUCKETS, BUT WARNINGS AREN'T WORKING

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, January 27, 1992                   TAG: 9201250238
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: EXTRA 4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium
BABIES CAN DROWN IN BUCKETS, BUT WARNINGS AREN'T WORKING
A 16-month campaign to warn that children could drown in large plastic buckets apparently is not working, and government and industry officials may be forced to find a new approach.
The industry-sponsored campaign has relied on consumers getting warning labels and putting them on the plastic five-gallon containers they have at home, rather than requiring companies that make or use the containers to put the stickers on or to take other measures. But thus far, only about 72,000 free stickers have been distributed to consumers who called a special toll-free line (800) 282-5385.
An estimated 150 million of the large buckets are used annually by industry, though not all find their way into people's homes. The buckets, which originally contained such material as janitorial supplies, paint, spackling compound or food, are often kept for household use because they are durable.
Each year, about 50 infants drown after falling headfirst into the buckets when the buckets are partly filled with water or other liquids, according to a recent estimate by the Federal Consumer Product Safety Commission. Figures for 1991 are not yet compiled.
The buckets are a greater threat to small children than are household chemicals, which kill about 42 children a year, commission officials said. Children up to a year old are the usual victims because they are too small to free themselves if they become trapped in the buckets.
Aside from backing the public information campaign, manufacturers who use the large buckets for their products have not done much to warn consumers about the danger. Producers of gypsum-based spackling compound volunteered last year to put warning labels directly on the buckets in which the compound is sold, but few other manufacturers followed suit: only 10 percent of manufacturers put the labels on.
Several company officials said they did not foresee any stronger voluntary movement toward safety labeling without prodding from the government.
Ed Rowe, director of plastics operation for Davies Can Co. in Mogadore, Ohio, said his company now makes a plastic five-gallon container embossed with an orange-and-black warning label. But customers are not buying the bucket because it costs 18 cents more than an unlabeled bucket.
"We've asked them, begged them and cajoled them, but so far we've had zero takers," he said.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB