Welcome to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission Podcast for January 12th, 2007.
Today, CPSC announced two major civil penalties totaling more than 1 million dollars.
The Hoover Company Inc., of North Canton Ohio, has agreed to pay $750,000 to settle allegations that the company failed to report to CPSC the sale of vacuum cleaners with defective on-off switches. They can overheat and cause the vacuum cleaner to catch fire.
Hoover first learned of a vacuum cleaner switch on one of these units overheating and melting in April 1999. In June 2004, after CPSC received notice of several incidents, the Commission requested Hoover provide a full report. In July 2004, Hoover reported 260 consumer incidents, of which 141 involved reports of fire and there was one report of a minor burn injury.
Federal law requires firms to report to CPSC immediately, which means within 24 hours after getting information about a defect with a product that could pose a substantial risk of injury to the public, presents an unreasonable risk of serious injury or death, or violates a safety standard.
Hoover voluntarily recalled 636,000 of these vacuum cleaners in April 2005. They are the Hoover Self-Propelled Upright Vacuum Cleaners manufactured between May 1998 and November 1999.
In addition to the Hoover civil penalty, CPSC also announced that Nexgrill Industries Inc., of City of Industry, Calif. agreed to pay a $300,000 civil penalty to settle allegations that the company failed to report a hazard with one of its gas grills.
Between April 2004 and October 2005, Nexgrill received 20 reports of gas grill fires, including three reports of minor burn injuries. CPSC alleged the firm failed to report the defect for at least 10 months, even after it had sufficient information that the gas grills contained a defect which could create a substantial product hazard.
Nexgrill voluntarily recalled about 16,000 of the grills in June 2006. Go to our Web site at www.cpsc.gov for more information about both of these recalls.
Also this week, CPSC announced the recall of about 45,000 Children’s Hooded Sweatshirts with drawstrings through the hood due to a strangulation hazard.
Seena International imported the sweatshirts that were sold at various clothing stores, including Ross and Gordman’s for about $25. They have the words “Brooklyn Xpress” written on the front or an abbreviated form of those words.
Consumers should immediately remove the drawstrings from the sweatshirts to eliminate the hazard. For additional information, contact Seena International toll-free at (866) 927-5596.
CPSC was alerted to this hazard by the State of Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection through its retail surveillance.
For more on carbon monoxide and other CPSC news announced this week, you can visit our Web site at www.CPSC.Gov. And, until next time, stay safe and Happy New Year!
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