Exploding Glass Recalls and Safety Alerts

Macy's is miffed at Martha. No, it doesn't have anything to do with those infamous exploding tables. No one seems to care about those, except their unlucky owners.  

This fight is over something more basic -- marketing rights.  Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia recently signed an agreement with J.C. Penney to sell home and kitchen items under the Martha Stewart name, something Macy's thinks is its exclusive territory.

After all, Macy's has been selling Martha's stuff since way back in 2005 or so, when a similarly snotty dust-up occurred between Sears/Kmart and Macy's.

Is this starting to sound like Newt Gingrich's marital history?

You may remember that Kmart had been selling a line of Martha Stewart merchandise for years and stuck with her during, oh, you know, that little unpleasantness with the courts and prison and everything.

When she got out, Martha repaid Sears/Kmart by doing a deal with Macy's.  Now Macy's is on the receiving end, and has filed suit in a New York court charging breach of contract and claiming that the right to sell Martha Stewart home and kitchen items belongs exclusively to Macy's.

A Stewart spokesman said the merchandise sold at Penney's would be different from that sold at Macy's.

It's not a new problem. For several years now, glass top patio tables have been suddenly exploding into tiny pieces, usually when subjected to slight variations in temperature.

“On July 11, 2011 my patio table just shattered into pieces on our deck,” Patty, of Gallaway, Ohio, told ConsumerAffairs.com. “We were having a sprinkle of rain and while I was in the shower I heard an odd noise and when I came out my table glass was in a million pieces!”

Patty is far from the only consumer having this experience. Bonnie, of Flower Mound, Tex., says she purchased a Martha Stewart Patio set just last month.

“This week the glass top exploded!” she said. “I wish I had read all of these complaints prior to purchasing, but wonder why Home Depot, K-Mart, and Martha Stewart, allow these dangerous items to continue to be sold. We have a special needs son and it was a miracle that he was not harmed.”

Another consumer uploaded the video below to YouTube, saying their in-home security camera captured a glass table spontaneously shattering.

In 2005 a class action lawsuit was filed against the manufacturer ofthe glass top tables, but the company declared bankruptcy before the case could be heard.

In May 2009 Australia's Commissioner for Consumer Protection Anne Driscoll asked to hear from consumers who have been injured by glass topped tables that may have shattered spontaneously.

““Fracturing can occur in tempered or toughened glass table tops,” she said at the time. “Tempering causes them to implode into sugar pieces, rather than shards. There may be previous damage, not visible to the human eye, leading the tables to shatter at a later stage.”

Over the years, ConsumerAffairs.com has received a number of complaints from consumers about their glass bakeware exploding, either in the oven or soon after being removed.

"My wife was baking fish with vegetables in a Pyrex baking dish when we both heard a bang like a crash of glass coming from inside the oven," Al of Chicago told ConsumerAffairs.com recently. "We opened it and saw that the glass dish had literally exploded, with about 15 large pieces and countless smaller pieces of glass of all sizes inside the oven."

One consumer submitted this YouTube video, showing the aftermath of
one of these kitchen catastrophes.

ConsumerAffairs.com has also received similar complaints about glass baking dishes made by Anchor Hocking.

"I was making dinner last night with our 9x11" glass casserole dish made by Anchor," Kami, of Ashburn, Va., told ConsumerAffairs.com. "I pulled the dish out of the oven, set it on the stovetop to cool off for a few minutes before cutting the casserole to serve for dinner. About five minutes later, we heard the knife fall to the floor and a loud "BOOM" sound. We look up to find that our casserole dish had exploded all over the stove, counters, and floor!"

For the record, the company that makes Pyrex says its products are safe, are made the same way they always have been, and that users should carefully follow the directions for use.

While hundreds of millions of glass baking dishes are used safely each year, hot glassware can shatter unexpectedly -- sometimes causing serious injuries, according to a year-long investigation by Consumer Reports (CR).

The report, which comes more than four years after ConsumerAffairs.com revealed the problem and jousted with bakeware company lawyers,  details several stories of glass bakeware breaking and shattering, including the case of a grandmother who said she opened her oven to baste a ham on Thanksgiving Day, only to have the glass dish shatter, sending pieces of glass and hot juices flying.

Investigation requested

After reviewing scores of consumer reports filed with federal regulators about bakeware unexpectedly shattering, Consumers Union (CU), the nonprofit publisher of Consumer Reports, has asked the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) to conduct a thorough study of glass bakeware on the market.

CU has also called on manufacturers to imprint warnings that are clearer and more prominent on their bakeware."Part of the problem is that the fine print warnings are so tiny and they're part of the packaging that consumers often throw out," said Andrea Rock, senior editor, Consumer Reports.

The report, available in the magazine's January issue, says that in a typical year, the two main manufacturers of glass bakeware -- World Kitchen, the maker of Pyrex in the U.S., and its competitor, Anchor Hocking -- collectively make on average more than 70 million units of what is undoubtedly a staple of most kitchens and a popular cooking tool when preparing holiday meals.

Caution for cooks

The report contains ten precautions that may surprise cooks who have used glass bakeware.To minimize the chances of the glassware shattering, consumers should read and save the safety instructions from their glass bakeware and follow these safety rules:

1. Always place hot glassware on a dry, cloth potholder or towel.
2. Never use glassware for stovetop cooking or under a broiler.
3. Always allow the oven to preheat fully before placing the glassware in the oven.
4. Always cover the bottom of the dish with liquid before cooking meat or vegetables.
5. Don't add liquid to hot glassware.
6. If you're using the dish in a microwave, do not use browning elements, and avoid overheating oil and butter.
7. Do not take dishes directly from the freezer to the oven or vice versa.
8. Never place hot glassware directly on a countertop (or smoothtop), metal surface, on a damp towel, in the sink, or on a cold or wet surface.
9. Inspect your dishes for chips, cracks, and scratches. Discard dishes with such damage.
10. To avoid risks associated with glass dishes, consider using metal bakeware for conventional and convection ovens.

CR's investigation

To find out about glass bakeware, CR conducted an investigation that included testing in its own labs and outside labs, and gathering information from manufacturers, government agencies, experts, and consumers.When Pyrex was first marketed in 1915, it was made of a heat-resistant glass called borosilicate that previously was used to prevent glass railroad lanterns from shattering.

While U.S. manufacturers of both Pyrex and Anchor Hocking have switched from borosilicate to soda lime glass for their glass bakeware, the magazine notes, samples of European-made glass bakeware obtained continue to consist of borosilicate.

The manufacturers say their soda lime glass has advantages and is less likely to break when dropped or bumped.While the results from Consumer Reports' limited impact tests were highly variable, some samples of soda lime glass showed the highest impact resistance.

The methods

Consumer Reports tested both types of glass in its lab to see how they compared in extreme conditions likely to cause breakage. To test the dishes, CR filled each pan with dry sand (which gets much hotter than food) and then placed the dishes in ovens set at varying temperatures.The testers then compared what happened when each hot dish was removed from the oven and placed on a wet granite countertop, a situation likely to induce thermal shock and contrary to each manufacturer's instructions for use.

The magazine notes that the bar was set high in the extreme tests because dishes that are scratched or damaged may not offer the same safety margin as new dishes, and users may ignore or be unaware of the usage instructions.

Ten out of ten times the soda lime glass broke after baking at 450 degrees. But in the same conditions, the European borosilicate glassware did not break, though most did after baking at 500 degrees.

Highlights

Some key highlights from the investigation include the following:

• Consumers in scores of cases reported glass bakeware unexpectedly shattering, according to federal documents, court papers, and interviews.When Consumer Reports examined 163 incidents (152 of which were from CPSC files) in detail, the analysis revealed 42 reports of injuries, ranging from minor burns or cuts to those requiring surgery. More than half of the incidents reportedly occurred while the bakeware was in the oven while almost a quarter occurred with the bakeware cooling on a counter or stovetop.
• When glass bakeware does shatter, consumers say, it can break into sharp shards that go flying, raising the risks of injuries. This contrasts with claims from one of the manufacturers that its glass bakeware breaks into "relatively small pieces generally lacking sharp edges.”

Michelle of New York, NY, says she wascooking BBQ turkey legs in a 375 degree oven using Anchor Hocking glass lasagna pans. "When I went to take it out," she writes ConsumerAffairs.com. "It exploded and shards of glass when flying everywhere. They even flew into my face and luckily I didn't get anything in my eye how ever in the process of cleaning up the mess, I cut my foot. Thank God my kids were not in the room when it happened."

"I placed a pork loin into my Pyrex dish and put it in a 425 degree oven," writes Megan of Newport News, VA. "Eight minutes into cooking I hear an explosion. I open my oven to find tiny pieces of glass EVERYWHERE and my pork loin lying on the oven rack. So glad nobody was around and the oven door was closed tightly when it happened. Beware!"

Recommendations

Consumers Union says manufacturers should imprint clearer and more prominent warnings on their bakeware, not just on the packaging that gets tossed upon first use.

While hundreds of millions of dishes are used safely each year, CU believes the situation is serious enough that it has asked the CPSC to conduct a thorough study of glass bakeware on the market, with particular attention to the difference between bakeware made of soda lime glass and borosilicate.

As winter turns to spring, consumers across the country are once again waking up to the sounds of their Martha Stewart Everyday glass tabletops exploding into thousands of tiny pieces. The tables, sold at Kmart, have a long history of spontaneously shattering, and they dont show signs of stopping anytime soon, not that anyone in authority seems to care.

Months after a federal court dismissed a class action lawsuit alleging that the tabletops are defectively manufactured, owners of the product remain without recourse and several hundred dollars poorer, as they are left to clean the glass off of their patios and sometimes dig it out of their skin.

Late last year, a federal court in Illinois rejected class certification in the action, ruling that the court would have to decide individual issues of causation for each plaintiff, making a class action impracticable.

The suit, originally filed in 2005 on behalf of lead plaintiff Michelle Ronat, alleged that Kmart refused to give aggrieved customers refunds or replacements, since the tabletops werent covered under warranty. Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia (MSLO) — named after convicted felon and media darling Martha Stewart — when confronted by consumers, passed the buck to JRA Manufacturing, the Chinese company that produced the tables. The manufacturer, in turn, said the problem lay in a design defect attributable to MSLOs designers.

The suit, prosecuted by Horwitz, Horwitz & Paradis, a New York class action firm, sought replacement tabletops for an estimated 300,000 consumers. With tabletops potentially costing as much as $500 apiece, the action threatened to leave MSLO liable for up to $150 million.

The glass replacements cost so much because JRA, the manufacturer, declared bankruptcy in 2007, leaving consumers unable to obtain factory replacements. Instead, they have been forced to have glass custom-made to fit their tables. In some cases, individuals could end up paying more for the replacement top than they did for the entire table set in the first place.

Although MSLO contends that a relatively small number of consumers were affected, ConsumerAffairs.com has received hundreds of complaints over the past five years, as have other Internet sites. Like the swallows returning to Capistrano, the complaints increase predictably each spring, as tables are brought back outside and exposed to the sun's rays.

Additionally, according to the lawsuit, because the tabletops werent covered under warranty, Kmart didnt keep records of most complaints. As a result, the complaints Kmart does have on file likely represent only a fraction of actual incidents.

Similar complaints

Affected consumers experiences are strikingly similar, and the most common and disturbing thread is that there is no way to know when a table is about to explode.

My Martha Stewart Glass topped patio table exploded after only one year of use, writes Marylou of Brockton, Ma. I am left with a set of six chairs and no table to use. I received minor cuts from cleaning up all of the exploded glass which is fine but emotionally I was very upset after spending all that money on something that is now useless to us.

In a similar vein, Judy of Unionville, Oh., writes, Table shattered into a million pieces. Paid good money for poor quality. It is so sad especially with the economy like it is. Who can afford this[?].

A considerable number of consumers have had more than one table shatter. Some bought a set and ended up having several shatter over time, as happened to Lisa of Austintown, Oh.

Two years after I purchased this set, the glass on the leaf design coffee table shattered into a hundred pieces, writes Lisa. The following year, the glass on the round table shattered ... The damage was not due to abuse by the owner. A defect in the product is obviously the cause.

Others replaced tables that exploded, only to relive the experience months or years later. Thats what happened to Margaret of Cedar Rapids, IA.

[We] have now had TWO patio tables from the Victoria Collection explode, writes Margaret. The first time it was over a year since we had it and our Kmart replaced it with a new table. It just happened again and it has been over [a] year or more.

CPSC mulls the problem

The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) looked into the problem in 2006. The Commission asked MSLO to redesign the tables which MSLO has supposedly done but never issued a recall.

Even after years of complaints, the official cause of the problem remains a mystery. In 2006, ConsumerAffairs.com contacted glass experts to get their opinions, but many were at a loss.

Ken Toney of the Custom Glass Corporation in Kittanning, Pa., told ConsumerAffairs.com that he ha[d] no idea what would cause that. He speculated that, because the glass was made overseas, a defect in the molecular compound could have caused it to shatter.

However, William Lingnell, an expert who testified in the Ronat action, had a different theory. He hypothesized that the glass tabletop bumps against the tables metal frame, creating microcracks in the glass. According to Lingnell, these cracks eventually cause the glass to explode entirely. Lingnell noted that the edges of the glass are not dressed, or smoothed over; rather, theyre jagged and rough. This makes it easier for the glass to bump up against the metal edges of the table, form hairline cracks, and eventually explode.

The JRA tabletops are made from tempered glass, which breaks into very small pieces, making it less dangerous than glass that breaks into larger shards. Nonetheless, a number of consumers have reported cuts and other injuries caused by the tabletops.

A few days ago, the table shattered right in front of me and on top of my feet and legs, describes Tracy of South Park, Pa., in a representative complaint. My son, thank God, had just gotten up less than a minute before it shattered. I was covered in blood and slivers of glass. It was quite frightening.

Some injuries were even more startling. Pam of Beavercreek, Oh., described the scene after her table exploded with her granddaughter sitting underneath.

Glass was all over her. One big chunk stuck in her calf. She had blood everywhere. We ended up ... [at the h]ospital. She had glass all over. She had stitches in her leg and she has tiny scars various places from the little [shattered] pieces.

Martha's not in

Customer service has been virtually nonexistent.

Kmart refuses to cover the glass under consumers warranties and routinely directs them to MSLO. Martha Stewarts conglomerate, in turn, blames Kmart and JRA, and essentially refuses to assist customers.

In November 2008, when Martha Stewart herself was confronted by New York reporter Arnold Diaz, she was adamant that, We are not the liable party. Kmart is responsible for the tables. She also insisted that, I have not heard of one reported injury. With Kmart and MSLO pointing fingers at each other, JRA long gone from the marketplace, and Ronats suit dead in the water, consumers are left to fend for themselves.

The Diaz incident was highly unusual. The daily press, which spends much time and energy complaining about Internet bloggers supposedly poaching on its turf, looks down its nose at consumer journalism and spends more time planning the table arrangement for the annual Gridiron Show or Radio-TV Correspondents Dinner than it does confronting Martha Stewart about her exploding tables.

One consumer did manage to get MSLOs attention. David Potts of Marietta, Ga., called Kmart in 2005 to report that his tabletop had shattered. At first, Kmart was characteristically unresponsive, until Potts told them something that grabbed their attention: he was also known in some circles as Dave Michaels, the 1990s-era CNN anchor. Kmart relayed the inquiry to MSLO, which promptly took care of Potts.

Potts himself was injured as he tried to clean up the broken glass. As Potts told ConsumerAffairs.com, I was sitting at my computer when I heard this tremendous crash. I went outside to see what it was and it looked like my patio was covered in ice. It was the glass from the table top. I got a couple of slivers of glass in my fingers while I was cleaning it and here I am a year later and I can still feel pain in the tips of my fingers.

Causation questions

The class action suit was felled by individual issues of causation. Specifically, the court noted that some table tops may have been broken because of human error, such as a flower pot being dropped on the glass, rather than by spontaneous shattering. The court also said that differences in state laws made the class unmanageable.

Individual causation factors are often used to justify the dismissal of consumer class actions. Just last week, a class action involving Microsoft Vista was tossed on similar grounds.

The court also noted that it would be difficult to fashion a uniform remedy for all class members. Since some plaintiffs tables were practically brand new when they shattered, while others had been around for years, it would be impossible for the court to decide how to distribute a settlement award.

Despite the run of bad luck, owners of Martha Stewart tables are not completely out of options. They can file a complaint on ConsumerAffairs.com, or can report their experience to the CPSC. Consumers could theoretically file their own suits, although the costs of doing so would likely outweigh the amount recovered from MSLO.