IKEA faulty stairgate alert - but Malm drawers won't be recalled despite deaths of children

The Swedish furniture store has confirmed that while they will be recalling millions of the Malm drawers in America, they will still continue to sell the product in the UK and Ireland.

A spokesman for IKEA said: “To confirm, we are not recalling any chest of drawers in the UK and Ireland.

“Today, IKEA US and IKEA Canada will launch a local recall of chests of drawers in North America only. The recall is based on the local voluntary ASTM standard, which is applicable in North America. IKEA chests of drawers meet all mandatory stability requirements on all markets where sold.”

Child deaths

The US recall was announced on Monday following the death of 22-month-old Ted McGee who was crushed to death when the Malm drawers fell on top of him.

McGee is the third US toddler to have died in an accident involving the Malm drawers. In Feburary 2014 Curren Collas from Pennsylvania was crushed by the drawers, followed three months later by a 23 month old boy in Washington.

IKEA have issued a statement about the safety of the drawers urging parents to follow the instruction manual carefully and to ensure they anchor the drawers to the wall.

‘Drawers are safe’

A spokesman said: “IKEA chests of drawers are safe when anchored to the wall per the assembly instruction, using the tip over restraint provided with the product. Accidents related to furniture tipping over is a serious home safety issue for the entire home furnishing industry and IKEA is committed to take the lead in addressing this challenge.”

Mum of two, Kellie Curtis, criticised the store not flagging up the risks associated with leaving the drawers free-standing after her daughter Evie-Mai was rushed to hospital when the drawers fell on top of her.

Speaking to The Sun she said: “This has put me off IKEA for good and I think that they need to make the drawers safer. I really want to stress that they really do need to be fixed to the wall to avoid something like this happening.”

Urgent recall after children hurt by faulty IKEA stair gate

IKEA has issued an urgent statement urging customers to stop using its child safety gates after a series of failures were reported.

The firm has received several reports of children being injured after the gates failed. In some instances the child has required medical attention after falling down stairs.

An investigation has shown that the locking mechanism on the Patrull gate is unreliable. The failure of the lock leaves users, particularly young children, at risk of injury.

In a statement Maria Thörn, acting business area manager at Children’s IKEA, said: “At IKEA, we take a zero-tolerance perspective regarding child safety. We want to offer safe products and we believe that children are the most important people in the world. Whenever we are made aware of a possible safety issue with our products, we investigate thoroughly.

“We cannot accept that there could be a risk of injury while playing and as an immediate and precautionary action we have decided to recall all Patrull safety gates.

“IKEA is not willing to risk children’s safety and therefore urges all customers that have a Patrull safety gate to immediately stop using it and to bring it back to an IKEA store for a full refund.

The recall affects all Patrull safety gate, Patrull klamma and Patrull fast. Customers are asked to return the affected items to their nearest IKEA store for a full refund. No proof of purchase is necessary.