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Ikea recalls more furniture due to tip-over risks to children

This photo shows an IKEA location in Philadelphia, Monday, Jan. 6, 2020. IKEA has agreed to pay $46 million to the parents of a 2-year-old boy who died of injuries suffered when a 70-pound recalled dresser tipped over onto him, the family’s lawyers said Monday. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke) ORG XMIT: PAMR117 (Matt Rourke / AP)
Washington Post

Ikea is recalling 820,000 of its Kullen three-drawer chests because of the risk of the product tipping over and crushing children.

The announcement made Wednesday, with the Consumer Product Safety Commission, comes two months after the popular Swedish retailer agreed to pay $46 million to the parents of a 2-year-old boy killed by an Ikea Malm dresser in California in 2017.

The recall also comes amid a flurry of furniture products being pulled from the market because of the tip-over risk.

The CPSC has announced seven recalls of chests and drawers since September because of the danger, along with a rare product safety alert for a four-drawer dresser made by Hodedah that the agency considered so dangerous that it decided against waiting for the manufacturer to agree to a recall. Most recalls are made voluntarily by a company after negotiating with regulators.

The CPSC is also crafting mandatory safety regulations for furniture to prevent children from being crushed. Furniture tip-overs were blamed for 89 deaths, mostly children, from 2014 to 2018, according to the agency.

The Ikea Kullen dresser is unstable if it is not anchored to the wall, posing the risk of injury or death to children, according to the CPSC recall announcement. Three-drawer versions of the Kullen chest imported after Aug. 12, 2019, also do not comply with the voluntary performance standards. Customers have the option of seeking refunds or a wall-anchoring kit for the furniture.

About 17.3 million Ikea Malm chest and drawers were recalled in 2016 and 2017. But the parents of Jozef Dudek of Buena Park, California, said they never knew about the recall and the retailer never contacted them. The boy was killed in 2017 when he climbed on the short dresser and it fell on top of him, according to court records.