WASHINGTON - The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission is urging consumers to remove the latch or lock on all “Cavalier” brand cedar chests immediately. The chest’s lid locks automatically when the lid is closed, presenting a serious danger to children. Three children have suffocated to death after becoming locked inside these chests in incidents between 2004 and 2019. 

 

The classic design chests were sold beginning in the early 1900s by Tennessee Furniture Company, which got its start as a sawmill in 1865. It was renamed Cavalier Furniture Corporation in 1938. But the chests under both brands, while no longer made, are still being sold or resold at antique stores, secondhand stores and by consumers through online marketplaces across the country. CPSC says it is is extremely concerned that many thousands of the cedar chests remain in consumers’ homes and continue to pose a danger to children. 

 

CPSC is urging consumers to check their homes, basements and attics for the cedar chests, and to remove the latch or lock immediately from the lid, to protect children from becoming trapped inside and suffocating. These chests can be identified by the Cavalier company logo and name imprinted inside the lid. However, not all of the chests have the logo and name. Consumers should check to see if their chest’s latch or lock engages automatically when the lid is shut.

 

Not all chests will look like those pictured here – there are numerous variations that may exhibit this unsafe latch or lock feature. Look in your home for one of these chests; act immediately, and remove the latch or lock.

 

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 or mechanical hazard. CPSC'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 Commission.