JERSEY CITY, N.J. – As the Labor Day weekend approaches, popular for beachgoers, U.S. Senators Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) and Mark Warner (D-Va.) today pressed product safety regulators working to develop new standards for umbrellas to include beach umbrellas in their testing protocols.  It’s the latest push in the senators’ continued effort to protect beachgoers from the dangers of wind-swept beach umbrellas after a tourist in Seaside Heights, N.J. in 2018 was speared in the leg by the flying projectile and another woman in 2016 was killed in Virginia Beach when a beach umbrella caught in the wind impaled her in the chest. 

 

ASTM International, formerly known as American Society for Testing and Materials—a nonprofit that often partners with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) to develop technical standards for a wide range of materials, products, systems, and services—last year began testing the safety and durability of market umbrellas in various wind conditions, but has inexplicably excluded beach umbrellas from its testing regimen, instead limiting it to patio and weighted-base umbrellas. 

 

Assessing the risks associated with using certain products under specific conditions is a critical step towards developing new product safety standards, recommendations, and best practices to mitigate the risk.   

 

“Given the grave danger posed by beach umbrellas we feel it is imperative that ASTM include beach umbrellas in any new test methods,” the senators wrote to ASTM International Subcommittee Chair Ben Favret.  “Summer is in full swing, and as millions of newly vaccinated Americans emerge from their homes to spend time at the shore, we must do all we can to ensure the safety of beach umbrellas.”

 

The letter was cosigned by Sens. Menendez, Warner, Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Tim Kaine (D-Va.).

 

After Sen. Menendez’s repeated calls for the Consumer Product Safety Commission to act, the CPSC wrote to ASTM in March urging it to “expand the standard to address fully the hazards of injuries and death due to beach umbrellas implanted in the sand.”

 

“We could not agree more,” the senators’ letter continued.  “We write to urge ASTM International to update its testing method standard to account for wind speed as it relates to beach umbrellas.”

 

According to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, an estimated 2,800 people sought treatment at emergency rooms for beach umbrella-related injuries from 2010-2018.  ASTM even acknowledges on its own website that the effects of wind-blown umbrellas “can range from acute injury, such as cuts or bruises to blunt force trauma, such as concussions or broken bones and in some cases death.”

 

The senators first raised the issue of beach umbrella safety with the CPSC in May 2019.  The back-and-forth with the agency continued with the CPSC’s response that June and the senators’ follow-up in July. 

 

Sen. Menendez’s office has since continued to stay engaged, pressing the beach umbrella safety issue with the CPSC in repeated phone calls and other direct communications with the agency.

 

Full text of the letter is below and can be downloaded here:

 

August 31, 2021

 

Ben Favret

Subcommittee Chair, ASTM F15.79

ASTM International

100 Barr Harbor Drive

West Conshohocken, PA 19428

 

Dear Mr. Favret:

 

We write to urge ASTM International to update its testing method standard to account for wind speed as it relates to beach umbrellas.

 

As you note on your website, “[t]he deleterious effects of a Market Umbrellas [sic] being blow[n] over or broken by wind forces can range from acute injury, such as cuts or bruises to blunt force trauma, such as concussions or broken bones and in some cases death.”  Further, you state that “[t]he lack of any voluntary standard for the safe performance of Market Umbrellas puts millions of consumers and employees around the world at risk unnecessarily.”  Indeed, as the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) stated in a June 2019 letter to the Senate, over the nine-year period from 2010-2018, an estimated 2,800 people sought treatment in emergency rooms for injuries related to beach umbrellas.  A majority of those injuries were caused by a wind-blown beach umbrella. 

 

In March 2021, the CPSC wrote to ASTM requesting that it “expand the standard to address fully the hazards of injuries and death due to beach umbrellas implanted in the sand.”  In addition, the agency suggested “mentioning the known fatality in the introduction of the standard, along with the injury data already there”.  We could not agree more. Given the grave danger posed by beach umbrellas we feel it is imperative that ASTM include beach umbrellas in any new test methods.

 

Summer is in full swing, and as millions of newly vaccinated Americans emerge from their homes to spend time at the shore, we must do all we can to ensure the safety of beach umbrellas. We appreciate ASTM’s willingness to consider this issue.  Should you have further questions please contact Shelby Boxenbaum in Senator Menendez’s office at 202-224-4744.

 

Sincerely,