Ikea recalls 29 million dressers after 6 kids killed

The manufacturer says they plan to work with the Consumer Product Safety Commission on tip over protection and innovations to enhance product safety of all of their drawers and dressers.

Ikea will no longer be selling the now-recalled dressers in their current design; it will only sell products that meet CPSC guidelines for stability, Petersson says.

More details about the recall were expected to be released on Tuesday.

Furniture giant Ikea is recalling millions of its dressers, which have been blamed for the deaths of three children. If the owners do not want to install the wall anchor, Ikea would send a crew to do it, says CPSC.

Customers who require a replacement restraint kit to secure their dresser can contact IKEA to get one free of charge, the company added.

An additional 36 children have been injured by Ikea chests and dressers, which are prone to tip over when they are not secured to a wall. The recall will apply to tens of millions of dressers, some sold more than 10 years ago.

According to Philly.com, the recall applies to the 27 million products addressed by the 2015 fix program, plus additional units.

At a news conference, the Consumer Product Safety Commission underscored the risk with a live demonstration of chests tipping over. The fix program covered about 27 million pieces of Ikea furniture, including about 7 million Malm dressers. Ikea is providing full refunds for dressers purchased after 2002, and partial store credit for older furniture.

The first warning was issued by Ikea US in 2015 when both 2-year-old Pennsylvania boy and a 23-month-old child from Washington died when a drawer toppled over. “It is clear that there are still unsecured products in customers’ homes, and we believe that taking further action is the right thing to do”, the company said in a statement Monday. “We have taken this very, very strong step in order to communicate a way to attach to the wall, but also to make sure that this becomes a very strong culture for people, as strong as putting on your seat belt when you are driving a auto”.

On Monday, Casey said he was heartened by the new steps, but would keep pressing for the passage of legislation he introduced earlier this month that would force a mandatory safety standard.

“Every 24 minutes in the USA a child goes to the emergency room because of a tip-over incident involving furniture or a TV,”said CPSC Commissioners Marietta Robinson and Joseph Mohorovic”.