Microwaves bad for baby bags

BY KEIICHIRO INOUE AND HIDEKI MOTOYAMA

THE ASAHI SHIMBUN

A leading manufacturer of childcare goods continued selling baby bottle disinfection bags until last month even though it knew the product had a tendency to burst while being heated in microwave ovens, sources said.

Pigeon Corp. claims the product is not defective and says it has no plans to issue a recall.

The incidents have opened oven doors, scattering hot water and bottle fragments, causing injuries.

Some 80 accidents and other troubles have occurred with the product over the past 10 years, according to sources. Thirteen users suffered injuries, mostly minor burns.

However, Pigeon, based in Tokyo's Chuo Ward, continued selling the bags, named Denshi Renji Suchimu Shodoku Baggu Dashiire Kantan (Microwave oven steam disinfection bag--easy to put in and out).

To disinfect a baby bottle, users put it in the resin-made transparent bag, with water, and place it in a microwave oven for three minutes.

Its ease of use made the product popular. The company says it has sold about 3 million bags over the past 10 years.

The 80 cases include less serious accidents such as bags tearing apart or seals opening.

In response to the incidents, a Pigeon official said: "We have not found the causes yet. But there were no structural problems with the product itself."

The official acknowledged that consumers were not at fault when products burst.

Complaints from users started immediately after the company began selling the product.

Though the firm improved the bags' seals and the written instructions, it was unable to prevent more accidents from occurring.

In November last year, it suspended the manufacturing process. At the end of last month, it suspended sales.

On its Web site and notices posted in drugstores, the firm is urging consumers to take precautions with the product.

Pigeon paid compensation to users and exchanged problematic bags but it did not announce the accidents.

It only reported them to the government on Jan. 28. Meanwhile, the government-affiliated National Institute of Technology and Evaluation (NITE) asked the company to investigate the accidents and report its results after the city government of Kagoshima received complaints from a homemaker there last November.

Pigeon reported its results to NITE in mid-February. NITE then announced the accidents Wednesday but did not reveal the firm's name.

The revised law on the safety of consumer products, which took effect in May 2007, obliges manufacturers or importers to file reports to the government if their products cause serious accidents. This includes death and fire.

For slight injuries, however, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry only asks manufacturers to make reports to NITE.

"The causes of the accidents are still unclear but we have suspended the manufacturing and sales of the product. We will deal sincerely with users who suffered injuries," the Pigeon official said.(IHT/Asahi: February 29,2008)