Freestanding Stoves may Pose Danger

WASHINGTON (AP) - April 5, 2007 -- Consumer groups said Thursday that freestanding stoves and ovens are being installed improperly and could tip over, injuring or killing people. The groups say 26 people have died from toppling appliances.

Officials from Public Citizen, the U.S. Public Interest Research Group and the Consumer Federation of America said freestanding stove and oven units have not been attached properly to walls or floors.

Brackets to secure the appliances are required to meet safety-testing company Underwriters Laboratories Inc.'s standards. But there are no laws that require the brackets to be used during installation.

Joan Claybrook, president of Public Citizen, said appliance sellers and installers are not using the brackets, and as a result at least 26 people have died and 100 injured between 1980 and 2006 when appliances toppled onto people.

Since Underwriter Laboratories adopted the anchoring standard in 1991, falling stoves and ovens have been blamed for 18 deaths and 46 injuries, according to data compiled by the Consumer Product Safety Commission. Of these, only one death and three injuries were caused by stoves manufactured after 1991 that were installed without the brackets, commission spokesman Scott Wolfson said.

He said in an e-mail that the agency is "not aware of a single injury or fatality caused by the tipping over of a stove manufactured after 1991 and installed properly."

(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

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