CHICAGO (Legal Newsline) - Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan announced on Wednesday that she has asked the national industry trade group overseeing manufacturers of crib bumpers to join her in the fight to stop the production of harmful bumper pads.

Madigan has expressed fear about the potential of suffocation and strangulation risks that could happen as a result of the bumper pads being inside the cribs.

In a letter to the Juvenile Products Manufacturers Association, Madigan expressed her concerns about the danger of the product to babies if they roll against a crib bumper, press their face against it, wedge their head between the pad and the mattress or crib side, or if their neck gets wrapped by the tie that secures the bumper to the crib.

"The JPMA and its manufacturers cannot sit by and wait for regulators to decide how, and if, crib bumpers should be used," Madigan said. "Their disregard for the danger posed by these products creates a very real danger."

Madigan alerted parents and caregivers to the hazards bumpers pose last month, urging them to remove these products to prevent tragedy from striking.

Madigan demanded in a letter sent last month that the JPMA release to the public results of a study it commissioned to investigate these dangers. Currently, the study has not been published as it awaits an internal review by the association.

"JPMA has failed to appropriately respond in light of these deaths," Madigan said. "One infant death due to bumper pad use is too many. We must act now to remove bumpers from store shelves, stop production and work to educate caregivers to this threat."

Madigan has partnered with the Illinois Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, Kids in Danger, the American SIDS Institute, SIDS of Illinois and the Canadian Health Department to alert caregivers to this danger.