May 8, 2008 10:19 pm US/Central
Lawmakers Call For Investigation Of Pyrex Bakeware
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
Federal lawmakers, in a response to reports by the 2 Investigators, are calling on the Consumer Product Safety Commission to find out if there is a problem with Pyrex.
CBS 2 Investigator Pam Zekman reports that people have complained that the glass bakeware has shattered or even exploded during what customers believe was ordinary use.
World Kitchen, the company that makes Pyrex, says it has an excellent safety record established over decades in an estimated 80 percent of U.S. homes.
The safety issue prompted cooks at home to contact CBS 2 with their own stories about Pyrex
Jeanine Dabertin of Whiting, Ind., says her leftover scalloped potatoes had cooled off for two to three hours on her room temperature stovetop. When she started washing out her Pyrex dish.
"And it literally shattered and exploded in my hand," Dabertin said.
The glass cut three fingers and last week she had surgery to repair a damaged tendon.
As proof that Pyrex is safe, World Kitchen points out and the CPSC confirms that the agency does not consider Pyrex to be a safety hazard and there has never been a recall of Pyrex.
"That the Consumer Product Safety Commission has not expressed some concern does not give me any peace of mind," said Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin.
Durbin has been leading the fight to overhaul and reform the CPSC. He and Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky sponsored bills after the agency failed to act on complaints about dangerous cribs and toys.
"The absence of any action by the Consumer Product Safety Commission should never be considered some sort of guarantee of the quality of the product," Schakowsky said.
The CPSC provided the 2 Investigators with 64 complaints it has received about shattering or exploding Pyrex, but said it "has neither investigated the incidents nor conducted...any evaluations of the products."
"Are we going to wait until a child loses an eye for the Consumer Product Safety Commission to act? We should not do that," Schakowsky said.
Both Durbin and Schakowsky are now asking the CPSC to conduct an independent analysis to determine if Pyrex glass is adequately tempered for its intended use in the kitchen.
World Kitchen says it is.
The lawmakers also think Pyrex warning labels need to be bigger, and clearer.
"I can tell you that a better warning label is a minimum requirement," Durbin said.
As we previously disclosed, for example, the label says to avoid severe hot to cold temperature changes and do not place hot dish on cold or wet surfaces, but it does not specify that a room temperature stovetop or a countertop are cold enough to shock a dish.
Or that the safest place to put a hot dish is on a dry potholder, as consumers have been told by World Kitchen call takers.
A call taker told John Kasperski that his mistake may have been storing his Pyrex dishes one inside the other.
"She said it could possibly lead to small chips or cracks that you couldn't see and that could cause a potentially dangerous problem," Kasperski said.
A Pyrex dish exploded in his hands after he took a port roast from a 350-degree oven.
"She said don't nest them," Kasperski said.
That's not on Pyrex instructions.
"Everybody nests," Schakowsky said. "They're actually all nested at the point of sale. If you can't nest a glass bakeware dish, then there's something wrong."
World Kitchen notes that CPSC data from a survey of 100 hospital emergency rooms nationwide shows no injuries from shattered Pyrex seen in 2005 and 2006
After hearing that in the 2 Investigators February 2008reports, Claire Gunselman of Prospect Heights contacted CBS 2.
"In fact I did have a hospital visit and it happened in 2006," Gunselman said.
She was taken to Edward Hospital in Naperville, which does not participate in the survey for CPSC.
She says a Pyrex dish exploded in midair after she took a cake out of the oven, sending glass flying about six feet.
"I got a piece of the glass stuck in my foot," Gunselman said.
She told a World Kitchen call taker what happened and the company reimbursed her for her uncovered medical bills.
In a letter to CBS 2, World Kitchen said "there have been very few such incidents among the 370 million Pyrex glass products world kitchen has sold since 1998."
And the company has said most incidents happen because consumers fail to follow instructions.
"Something's wrong," Gunselman said. "And it can't all be the consumer's fault."
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