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Ikea Issues Massive Recall Following Furniture-Based Child Death. Here's Why You Shouldn't Believe the Hype

Danger, design, lawsuits, and why you should always anchor tall furniture

By Rain Noe - June 28, 2016

in Furniture Design | Design Business

Earlier this year, a two-year-old in Minnesota died when a Malm dresser from Ikea toppled over and crushed him. You may remember that Ikea was in the news for something similar in 2014, when another two two-year-olds suffered the same fatal mishap. (See: "When Furniture Kills:" Let's Cut Through The Hype.)

Yesterday Lars Peterson, Ikea's U.S. president, told NBC that they're issuing a massive recall for nearly 30 million Malm dressers. At press time the Malm had disappeared from Ikea's U.S. website. The company is offering to buy back Malm units outright, or to send free anchoring kits to owners who wish to keep them (although these kits were already included with the original purchase).

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Headlines in U.S. publications are referring to the Malm as "dangerous dressers." The lawyer representing two of the families refers to the Malm as "defective dressers." Reactions I've seen on social media have been predictably shrill, making Ikea out to be merchants of death.

However, the truth is that the Malm is no more dangerous than any other dresser of similar proportions made out of similar materials, of which there are millions in the world. If there is a design defect with the Malm line, then there is a design defect with all dressers in that their form factors involve drawers going up and down their height.

The danger of any dresser presents itself when too many of the drawers, particularly closer to the top, are extended. If a child begins climbing or pulling on the drawers when the bulk of the contents' weight is no longer over the dresser's feet, disaster can ensue. That's basic physics. That's why Ikea includes an anchoring kit and instructions for how to use it with all of their dressers.

It should also be noted that the tipping problem is not limited to dressers and units with drawers. Here's a video from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission from seven years ago, well before the current round of media hype, trying to warn parents of the dangers of unsecured tall furniture, regardless of brand. (Warning: Though there is no actual human harm depicted here, this video is tough to watch, and will be doubly tough for parents to watch—although they certainly should.)

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Now let's add some perspective here. The death of three children is horrible, and our hearts of course go out to the families that have had to go through this hell. A total of six child deaths can be attributed to Ikea dressers if we go all the way back to 1989.

That's six deaths in 27 years.

According to the CPSC, a child dies every two weeks from having furniture or a television fall on them. Spread over 27 years, that's 2,808 deaths. That means Ikea is responsible for less than 1% of all furniture-or-TV-based child deaths, at roughly 0.2% over that 27-year period.

Yet it is Ikea, and not any of the other manufacturers "responsible" for that other 99.8% of the deaths, that is being sued by two sets of parents.

Which is what all of this is really about: Not a design defect, not manufacturing negligence. This is about suing people, this is about hiring lawyers to enact court proceedings that will move money from one bank account into another's. The reason that you don't hear about lawsuits involving that other 99.8% is because those are spread out amongst myriad manufacturers. Ikea, in contrast, presents a big, fat, highly visible, singular target.

Some people will say that these lawsuits are about highlighting child safety. Well, according to the CDC, two children drown in America every day. If we plug that into the 27-year figure that's 19,710 deaths. Water kills a lot more children than furniture. To be more precise, water is 3,285 times more likely to kill a child than an Ikea dresser is. But we don't hear about a lot of swimming pool installers being sued nor bathtubs recalled.

There are at least two takeaways here. First off, if you live in a household with children and own tall furniture of any variety, PLEASE take the time to anchor them to your wall. If you have friends who are parents, please urge them to do the same. And if you or they don't know how to do it, you'll find plenty of videos on YouTube demonstrating the process. You might need to spend a few bucks on a drill, a studfinder and/or some wall anchors, but it's money well spent.

Secondly, let this be a lesson to those of you that design/build/sell your own furniture. If it's something tall and you've not designed in some type of anchoring system, and ensured that your customers know about it, you might be asking for trouble.

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J L

8 years ago

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2Z

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The problem with the IKEA's Malm series is that none of the case pieces meet an industry standard which was developed in 2000 to combat this very issue of tipover. ASTM F2057 specifically addresses the stability of "clothing storage units", and includes two performance tests that evaluate for the stability of an unloaded dresser (worst case scenario). IKEA explicitly admits that these products do not meet the performance standards set forth in this industry standard in their recall press release.

As a design focused website - perhaps more emphasis should be placed on the fact that IKEA did not design around the industry standard (either of ignorance or negligence), or more importantly more on educating future furniture designers on various tools available to them, such as industry standards groups, etc.

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- Rick Chen
  
  J L
  
  8 years ago
  
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  Hi JL,
  I am a Taiwanese designer (so forgive me for my poor English) who has about 2 yrs experience in kids furniture design, and previously working for a small baby product company. I have a question, even in a small baby product company where I was working at, every products need to pass the safety standards before mass production. Ikea is a big and famous brand, why does it produce products that doesn't pass those related safety standards?
  
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  - J L
    
    Rick Chen
    
    8 years ago
    
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    Z
    
    No idea why IKEA did not pass the safety standards. Given that IKEA is such a big global company, they may have felt that the standards in other countries that they passed were sufficient. It can be difficult to navigate regulations and standards in multiple markets - but willful neglect or plain ignorance that results in accidents that can be avoid is generally unacceptable. I expect this is one reason why IKEA is being made an example of in the US.
    
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Simon Kwan

8 years ago

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1Z

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So wouldn't it be good if IKEA and other furniture manufacturers and their designers made the anchoring system an integral and required step to successfully complete a furniture assembly? Sure, clever consumers will probably find ways to work around it, but if their modifications / circumventions to bypass the built in safety system result in their own harm, then at least the manufacturer can't be faulted for doing their due diligence.

And BTW, as a new father, I've now anchored all my tallish or tip-able furniture. Wires and cables are either out of reach or secured. Foam bumpers are on sharp corners, and plug covers are on outlets. Cabinet doors and drawers have childproof latches. Heavy doors have foam wedges to prevent finger jamming. Despite all that, I'm sure my kid will discover ways to injure himself! I just hope I've covered the bases on anything that could cause serious injury!

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Francisco Hernandez

8 years ago

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Sounds like an article defending IKEA. Just as the media is vilifying IKEA, your article defending it or trying to make it less of a problem is sad. 3 deaths in 3 years is not enough to sue?
Anyways, yes there are hundreds of manufacturers of this kind of furniture; flat pack, cost effective and super light. IKEA made it cool and gained the mass appeal of this kind of furniture. I think most people if not all have or know of somebody with IKEA furniture.
Yes, most furniture is capable of tipping but flat pack furniture has a higher probability or is easier due to it's low weight. If 3 kids died in 3 years I am glad they are making this very public. I can just imagine how many hundreds of thousands of people have IKEA and or similar furniture in their homes not anchored to the wall.
Why are consumers & writers so prone to defending and attacking brands.
My kids bookcase (non IKEA but equally light in weight from Target) is securely anchored to the wall with heavy duty wall anchors and L brackets from my local hardware store. Have you also seen the cheap anchors they include with the furniture??? And they still rely on people knowing how to find a stud; I can just imagine how many of those anchors are just into drywall.

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- Gabriel Prero
  
  Francisco Hernandez
  
  8 years ago
  
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  2Z
  
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  That's exactly the point though. It's not about the brand. This is a potential hazard across the board. People thinking that it's just an Ikea issue are being misinformed. It's just Ikea that's receiving the blame for an overall product category. It's as if kids are getting injured from staplers, so Swingline gets sued because they're the recognizable stapler making people. Yes, it should be make public. But the focus should not be "Ikea's dangerous dresser." It should be "the potential hazards of lightweight dressers."
  
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Gabriel Prero

8 years ago

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Rain, thanks for posting this. I've got 3 (almost 4) little ones myself and I always try to emphasize this to my friends. If anything, the media coverage about this will only make people vilify Ikea, and think, "oh, Ikea is terrible, but my WalMart dresser is safe," when in fact, this should be about publicizing the potential hazard that ALL dressers present. The nature of the media coverage of this is doing a giant disservice to public safety.

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- Rain Noe
  
  Gabriel Prero
  
  8 years ago
  
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  1Z
  
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  I couldn't agree more. The real shame is that the six deaths mentioned here were preventable, as they included the proper hardware, but the instructions were disregarded. Good on you for telling your friends about it--I hope they listened!
  
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J L

8 years ago

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http://www.fastcodesign.com/3061599/dressers-dont-need-to-be-anchored-to-a-wall-these-student-designs-prove-it

To anyone who is interested.

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Noodle Time

8 years ago

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obviously it is the old tube TV that is the real killer... we should really get rid of those.

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c a r l i n m i t c h e l l

8 years ago

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Keep an eye on your kids. You are the adult.

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- Giorgos Giovanakis
  
  c a r l i n m i t c h e l l
  
  8 years ago
  
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  Ditto. Had a bunch of ikea furniture and 2 young rambunctious children, boy and girl, and never ever any issues with whatsoever. Took my job as a parent seriously!
  
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