Warner, Kaine urge stricter safety standards for beach umbrellas

Concerns that some beach umbrellas can be unsecured and prone to flying, causing serious injury or death, prompted Virginia’s senators to push for safer design standards for those umbrellas.

Democratic Senators Mark Warner and Tim Kaine recently wrote to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, urging the organization to finalize new safety standards released earlier this year for beach umbrellas by the American Society of Testing Materials. The standards, they wrote, need to be updated to reflect new safety requirements.

According to a release from the senators’ offices, an estimated 3,000 people are sent to the emergency room each year because of umbrella-related accidents. The incidents underscore the need for better safety measures, Warner and Kaine said..

“[I]t is vital that beachgoers are safe from dislodged beach umbrellas,” they wrote in their letter. “Improperly secured umbrellas can result in death or serious injury. We believe that recent actions by CPSC and the American Society of Testing Materials, including the release earlier this year of the ASTM F3681-24 safety standard, are good steps forward. We urge CPSC and industry to work together quickly to finish any outstanding suggested improvements or other modifications to this standard.”