Six-drawer and three-drawer MALM chest. Photos taken from IKEA.com
In the US, two toddlers were crushed to death when unsecured IKEA drawers tipped over on top of them last 2014. The deaths included that of a 2-year-old boy who passed away when a six-drawer “MALM” chest tipped over and pinned him against his bed. While in another state, a 23-month-old was crushed by a 3-drawer MALM chest.
There have been 3 other deaths reported since 1989 that have been linked to “tip-over accidents” involving IKEA chests and drawers.
The Swedish furniture company recently announced a product recall of 27 million dressers and chests in an effort to alleviate deaths caused by “tip-over accidents.” However, while their move is referred to as a “recall,” no actual furniture will be returned.
Instead, IKEA will be issuing new free wall anchoring kits that will include “tip-over restraints, wall-anchoring hardware, instructions and warning labels to be affixed to the furniture.”
The free repair kit is for MALM chests, IKEA children’s chests and dressers taller than 60 cm, and IKEA adult chests and dressers taller than 75 cm.
According to the US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), “a child dies every two weeks from furniture or TVs tipping over. Injuries from falling furniture occur every 24 minutes.” This is why IKEA spokesperson, Mona Liss, announced that IKEA will “continue to collaborate with the CPSC to find solutions for more stable furniture.”
Click “Continue reading” to know how you can prevent “tip-over accidents.”
Make sure you secure shelves, dressers, flat screen TVs and more to the wall.
While IKEA recalls 27 million of its products, it doesn’t mean that there aren’t other tip-over dangers that are lurking in your home. In fact, tip-over accidents (and deaths) involving flat screen TV’s, desktop monitors and book shelves have also been reported.
With that being said, here are some tips as to how you can child-proof these pieces of furniture via health.com:
- Secure furniture to the wall. If you aren’t sure how to do this, home improvement stores and child retail stores should be able to offer advice. It’s also a good idea to replace any top-heavy furniture that can’t be secured. This is particularly important for furniture with shelves, drawers and doors.
- Make sure that all computer monitors are also safely secured so they can’t tip over.
- Store television and computer equipment close to the ground. Other heavy and commonly used objects should also be stored low to the ground.
- Don’t put objects on top of TVs.
- Large wall art or sculptures that could fall and hurt a child should be secured or removed.
- Appliances, such as refrigerators, ovens and microwaves, should also be firmly in place.
- Mounted TVs should be well out of reach of young children.
Furthermore, it has been recommended that until the necessary safety precautions have been undertaken, it may be best to “move unanchored chests and dressers into storage or other areas where they cannot be accessed by children…”
Secure your furniture now and protect your child from becoming an unfortunate statistic.
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