According to the China IKEA English recall page, the furniture retailer received reports that PATRULL safety gates have come undone, and therefore they are urging customers to stop use immediately:
“IKEA has received customer reports where PATRULL safety gates have opened unexpectedly and children have fallen down stairs. Some of the incidents have required medical attention. A third party investigation has shown that the locking mechanism is not reliable, posing a risk for small children, despite approved tests to applicable standards.”
Their child safety policy is at first glance a refreshing and welcome stance in a country full of scandal, from vaccines to formula to school running tracks.
“At IKEA, we have a zero tolerance regarding child safety. We want to offer safe and healthy products and we think that children are the most important people in the world. Whenever we get indications of a possible safety issue with any of our products, we act. We cannot accept that there is a risk of injury while playing and as an immediate and precautionary action we recall all PATRULL safety gates,” says Maria Thörn, Acting Business Area Manager at Children´s IKEA.
In addition, CHOKLAD MÖRK 60% and CHOKLAD MÖRK 70% are being recalled “due to presence of milk and hazelnuts being insufficiently declared.” This presents an obvious problem for those with allergies.
Beijing customers can take both chocolate bars and safety gates to any IKEA store for a full refund.
Although these recalls are specific to China, expats and Chinese parents should be aware of the recent recall in the United States of America. Based on a voluntary industry standard, they’re recalling approximately 29 million units of the MALM dressers and chest drawers along with miscellaneous adult and children units in the US and Canada.
Three death incidents involving the MALM chests have been recorded, two in 2014 and one in February 2016. “None of the chests or dressers in the [three]incidents had been anchored to the wall” reported the USCPSC.
“In addition to the three deaths, IKEA received reports of 41 tip-over incidents involving the MALM chests and dressers, resulting in 17 injuries to children between the ages of 19 months and 10 years old,” the recall stated.
Customers in the US can take the dressers back to any store in the US for a full refund. Alternatively, customers can apply for a free wall anchor kit, as the tip-over threat is removed when properly anchored to the wall, as explained in the original directions.
These incidents have no doubt spurred on IKEA’s recent campaign released on their weibo account to educate about the importance of using wall anchors – which were neglected in the cases of the child deaths.
In a statement issued to bloggers Sixth Tone, Ikea China spokeswoman Xu Lide said there have been no complaints and no accidents reported in China and the store does not intend to issue a recall.
Sources: USCPSC, IKEA PATRULL Recall, IKEA MALM Recall, IKEA CHOKLAD MÖRK Recall, Sixth Tone, and IKEA Weibo.