We welcome the creation of a new government office whose mission is to prevent future product disasters and potentially save lives as well as headaches for consumers in Britain when mass-recalls occur.
The initiative comes off the back of the monumental Whirlpool tumble dryer disaster that saw some three million products liable to catching fire from excess fluff building up in the drums. It’s estimated that around one million tumble dryers are still out there that remain dangerous. This new government office is designed to prevent future disasters of this nature as well as dealing with the fallout when such incidents occur.
A number of incidents were reported where Whirlpool tumble dryers affected by the recall caught fire, putting lives at risk.
In efforts to prevent recurrences of such incidents, the Office for Product Safety and Standards has been created to ensure product recalls of this nature are dealt with quickly, and ensure consumers and government organisations are better supported.
They are to identify potential consumer risks and assist with the management of responses to large-scale recalls and repair operations.
It’s a step in the right direction to ensure that consumers are not harmed by products in the future.
As specialist Group Action Lawyers, we have seen our fair share of product liability cases where consumers have been put at risk, and even injured; which is often where we have to step in and support people with a class action claim. Although our role is to deal with the fallout and help those who need legal representation, we would of course rather see an end to such incidents in the future.
We’ve experienced the extent of damage scandals like the PIP Breast Implants, and the Metal-On-Metal Hip Implant problems. Victims can be left with lifelong complications and ailments.
No doubt there will be future consumer product recalls that will place people in harms way… And we’ll get to witness the effectiveness of the new office first-hand – once the next one occurs!