The Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS) has revealed that furniture safety issues increased from 2021 to 2023 by almost double.
Detailed in its annual reports for its Product Safety Database (PSD) for 2021-22 and 2022-23, total furniture product safety issues stood at a combined number of 98 cases.
For the period of 2021-22, furniture product safety cases stood at 38, representing 0.9% of total cases.
As for 2022-23, furniture product safety cases resulted at 60, representing 1.9% of total cases, while also indicating an increase of 57.8% in the number of furniture safety issues over a comparable period.
The report highlighted several hazard types, although not stated for each category, the hazard types that are most likely to be attributed to furniture cases would be fire, entrapment and injuries.
For the period of 2021-22, fire hazard cases totalled 156, representing 9.8% of cases, while entrapment stood at 16, (1%), and injuries at 238 (14.9%). As for 2022-23, fires resulted at 133, representing 9%, while entrapment stood at 27 (1.8%), and injuries at 173 (11.6%).
Here are some recent cases:
The Range issues product recall due to electric shock risk
John Lewis issues mattress topper recall over fire safety risks
Bed maker issues product recall on travel pillow over fire risk
Retailer issues second product recall on Chinese furniture
Overall, between 1st April 2021 and 31st March 2022, 4,108 notifications were received on the PSD, involving 4,303 products. Out of these, 7% of notifications were reported as presenting serious risk, and 5% of notifications were reported as presenting high risk.
The most frequently notified product category on the PSD was toys (26.6% of products notified) followed by electrical appliances and equipment (20.8%) and cosmetics (19.5%). The most frequently notified hazard was electric shock (26.7% of the unsafe products), followed by injuries (14.9%) and choking (13.8%).
Between 1st April 2022 and 31st March 2023, 2,814 notifications were received on the PSD, involving 3,164 products. Out of these, 16% of notifications were reported as presenting serious risk, and 9% of notifications were reported as presenting high risk.
The most frequently notified product category on the PSD was electrical appliances and equipment (32.7% of products notified) followed by toys (24.1%) and cosmetics (15.6%). The most frequently notified hazard was electric shock (34.0% of the unsafe products), followed by chemical (13.7%) and injuries (11.6%).
