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Glass Tables a Serious Safety Hazard

If Glass Is Not Tempered, Breakage Can Be Life-Threatening

November 28, 2006
In an instant, Kori Saunders thought her soccer playing days at the University of Nebraska were over. After sitting on the corner of a friend's glass coffee table while playing Nintendo, she heard a loud popping noise and all of a sudden, the glass shattered.

As Kori fell, a large glass shard punctured her kidney and chipped her vertebrae. She was told she would never walk again.

Jason Black, a professional opera singer, was told he'd never speak again after a heavy glass table he was carrying fell and shattered, severing both jugular veins, and almost decapitating him as his wife watched in horror.

"With this accident and all the blood, and just the shrieking sound of the glass it was so loud, I just, I really didn't think he was going to make it," Jason's wife told the syndicated TV news show Inside Edition.

Glass tables are stylish and popular, but are they safe? What many people might not know is that some glass tables are safer than others and you can't tell by looking at them.

Inside Edition conducted a demonstration by breaking two types of glass: regular and "safety glass," known as tempered glass in the industry. When regular glass is broken it breaks into very large shards of sharp glass that could very easily cut somebody.

However, according to Consumer Reports product safety director Don Mays who conducted the demonstration with Inside Edition, when tempered glass breaks, it breaks into small pieces that aren't likely to cause serious injury.

Mays says accidents could be dramatically reduced if all glass furniture sold in the U.S. was required to be made of safety glass.

"The European Union requires that glass table tops be made of safety glass. In the United States, no such law exists," Mays said.

Both Kori Saunders and Jason Black have recovered fully. But they both say Americans have a right to know just how safe their furniture is.

ConsumerAffairs.com hears regularly from consumers whose glass patio tables have imploded and consumers complain of getting small pieces of glass in their feet and hands. But, though annoying, this kind of breakage is typical of tempered glass and is not likely to cause life-threatening injury.

Hard to Tell

But as Inside Edition found, it's not always easy to find out if you are actually buying tempered glass.

Inside Edition's Matt Meagher took hidden cameras to two different Bombay furniture stores. Salespeople at both assured Meagher that a particular tabletop was made from tempered glass.

To find out if this was true, Meagher purchased the tabletop and broke the top to see how the glass broke. The result was large, dangerous shards of regular glass.

A spokeswoman for Bombay told Inside Edition the chain would try to prevent similar incidents.

"You have told us that our sales associates represented this glass as tempered and if so the sales associates were incorrect about this particular piece of glass we are taking immediate action to provide additional information to our sales associate throughout the country in an attempt to avoid similar incidents in the future," a Baombay spokesperson said.

What Can You Do?

As Inside Edition reported, glass tops are attracgtive but can be very dangerous. The safest course of action -- especially for families with small children -- is to avoid glass-topped furniture entirely.

If you have a table that requires a clear top, any mirror or glass shop can provide you with glass that is guaranteed tempered. Better yet, while your children are small, have the glass shop cut clear plexiglass to replace the glass tops. Sure, it may scratch but it won't shatter and cause serious injury.

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