Around 29 million chests and dressers have been recalled by IKEA following the fatality of a fourth child who died in 2011, according to a report by The Daily Mail.
The Swedish retail company stopped selling many products from its MALM collection in the U.S. over the summer, after three children died from dressers or chests tipping over on them. But most recently, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission released a statement identifying the death of a fourth child that occurred in September 2011 – A two-year-old boy from Woodbridge, Virginia who got trapped after a MALM 3-drawer tipper over.
The MALM line has been blamed for the deaths of two-year-old Curren Collas and Camden Ellis in 2014, and again in 2016 for the death of 22-month-old Ted McGee. IKEA, in cooperation with the CPSC, announced the recall of all dressers and chests that do not comply with the requirements of the U.S. voluntary industry standard. Chests and drawers are also being recalled in Canada.
According to the CPSC:
The recalled children’s chests and dressers are taller than 23.5 inches and adult chests and dressers are taller than 29.5 inches.
The recalled items include: the MALM 3-drawer, 4-drawer, 5-drawer and three 6-drawer models, as well as other children’s and adult chests and dressers. The recalled items were sold from 2002 through June 2016, and were priced from $70 to $200.
If the drawers and chests are not anchored to the wall, they pose a tip-over hazard. IKEA and the CPSC announced a repair plan for the items that included a free wall-anchoring repair kit for the MALM chests and dressers after two child fatalities from tip-over incidents. In those two deaths, the items were not anchored to the wall.
In addition to the child fatalities, IKEA received reports of 41 tip-over incidents that involved products in the MALM line, which resulted in 17 injuries to children aged 19 months to 10 years.
