Furniture Contributing to Safety Accidents Most at Home

-  Analyzing the result of consumer injury trends in 2016 -

    Han kyeon-pyo, President of Korea Consumer Agency, said we need to pay attention to safety accidents from products, facilities and services as a result of reviewing 69,018 reports in CISS*.

    * CISS(Consumer Injury Surveillance System): Under the Framework Act on Consumers, collecting, analyzing and evaluating injury information submitted by 80 organizations including 62 hospitals and 18 fire stations as well as 1372 consumer consulting centers.

    □ Injury products were furniture and its facilities, safety accidents from home appliances and information technology devices surged year on year

    Safety accidents from furniture accounted for 10,482 cases(15.2%) of the total followed by processed food(8,827 cases, 12.8%), home appliances and information technology devices(8,058 cases, 11.7%).

    The main reason for the injury resulted from physical shock, which accounts for 28,634(41.5%) of the total followed by 14,972 cases of food or foreign substance cases (21.7%) and 12,389 cases of product-related problems(18%).

    Problems of home appliances and information technology devices jumped to 2,748 cases(51.8%) compared to last year. Safety-related issues have also increased since there were safety concerns over nickel found in ice water purifiers, air purifier’s OIT disinfectant scandal last summer.

Meanwhile, problems of processed food which ranked 1st of the total due to fake cynanchum wilfordii came in third(△2,477, △21.9%).

    □ Children under the age of 10 fall off bed

    Children under the age of 10 account for 29.7%(20,505 cases) of the total followed by 7,754 cases(11.2%) of people in their 30th, 7,183 cases(10.4%) of people in their 60s, 6,681 cases(9.7%)of people in their 40s.

    People under 10 fall off the bed and have problems with bicycles followed by pet-related problems in people in their 20s, home water purifiers in people in their 30s to 40s, collapsing from stones and tiles in people in their 50s or more.

Types of problems

    “Home”48.6%(34,228 cases) accounts for the accidents the most followed by 7.7%(5,322 cases) of roads and sidewalks, 5.9%(4,041 cases) of accommodations and restaurants.

    The Korea Consumer Agency(KCA) has conducted quick examinations over the above types of problems to encourage businesses to respond to recall of 164 products and to improve the quality of 271 products. In addition, the KCA has made efforts to provide safety information to hazardous products.

    The KCA emphasized that consumers should recognize that homes are susceptible to safety-related accidents. Consumers also need to pay attention to home furniture as well as installment and management of home appliances, children and the elderly who are vulnerable to safety.

    The KCA said consumers who experience from safety-related issues are advised to call 080-900-3500(hotline) or use mobile applications and visit CISS homepage(www.ciss.go.kr)

    ※ For more information, you can visit CISS homepage – injury information – consumer injury