The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission has announced the recall of three different brands of children's hooded sweatshirts and jackets with drawstrings due to the fact that they fail to meet CPSC guidelines. These guidelines (pdf) were were issued in 1996 to help prevent children from strangling or getting entangled in drawstrings in upper garments.

The first recall is for about 5,740 Raw Blue hooded sweatshirts. These were sold in three styles: smack print, kapow print and comic magazine print. They have style numbers 7FT5655, 7FT5455, and 7FT5515 printed on the sales tag. They were sold at TJ Maxx, Mega Trends, Moonstone Shirts and MP Trading stores nationwide from July 2007 through December 2007 for between $30 and $40 each. If you have one, you should immediately remove the drawstrings to eliminate the hazard or return it to the place of purchase or Raw Blue for a refund. For more information, contact contact Raw Blue by calling (800) 638-1537 between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. ET Monday through Friday. More Illustrations of the recalled sweatshirt can be found here.


Next up are about 1,200 drawstring hoodies by Request Jeans. The recall involves a short sleeve hoodie (item number 11188SG) and a long sleeve hoodie (Item number 11218LG). The short sleeve hoodie has "Request" printed all over and was sold in olive green and light blue. The long sleeve hoodie has a butterfly design on the back of the hoodie and on the chest and was sold in white and olive green. These were sold at mass merchandisers and other retail stores nationwide from January 2007 through March 2007 for about $36 each. If you have either of these, you should immediately remove the drawstrings or return it to the place of purchase or Request Jeans for a refund. For more information, contact Request Jeans by calling collect at (212) 302-0077 between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. ET, Monday through Friday. More illustrations of these sweatshirts can be found here.




And finally, we have the recall of about 1,200 Bongo Cheetah Girls Jackets. The recall involves style 8N6003 and RN number 119132, which you can find printed on the care label. The jackets were sold in girls sizes 4 through 6X at Marshalls stores nationwide from November 2007 through August 2008 for about $25 each. If you have one, either remove the drawstring or return it to Marshalls or Kids with Character for a full refund. For more information, contact Kids With Character by calling collect at (212) 695-6343 between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. ET, Monday through Friday. More illustrations of these jackets can be found here.