Recall Alert

U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission

Sauna By Airwall Recalls Infra-Red Sauna Rooms Due to Fire Hazard

The following product safety recall was voluntarily conducted by the firm in cooperation with the CPSC. Consumers should stop using the product immediately unless otherwise instructed.

Name of Product: Infra-Red Sauna Rooms

Units: About 225

Distributor: Sauna By Airwall Inc., of Bellflower, Calif.

Manufacturer: Xuzhou Waterstar Electronic Co.

Hazard: The heating unit and fuse can fail, leading to overheating of the saunas. This defect can result in a serious fire hazard to consumers.

Incidents/Injuries: Sauna By Airwall has received four reports of fires resulting in property damage. There have been no reports of personal injury.

Description: The recalled infra-red sauna rooms are made of wood and include the following model numbers: IC I, IC II, IC III, IC IV, and IC V. The model number is indicated on the serial plate located on the back of the machine, in the lower right hand corner.

Sold by: Authorized Sauna By Airwall dealers nationwide from November 2006 through April 2008 for between $600 and $4,000.

Manufactured in: China

Remedy: Consumers should immediately stop using the recalled product and disconnect from power source, and contact the firm for a refund. All known users have been contacted.

Consumer Contact: For additional information, contact the firm collect at (562) 630-2283 between 11 a.m. and 7 p.m. ET Monday through Friday or via e-mail at customersupport@saunabyairwall.com

(FOR MORE INFO AND PICTURES VIEW WEB PAGE:)

http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml08/08584.html

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Send the link for this page to a friend! The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission is charged with protecting the public from unreasonable risks of serious injury or death from more than 15,000 types of consumer products under the agency’s jurisdiction. Deaths, injuries and property damage from consumer product incidents cost the nation more than $800 billion annually. The CPSC is committed to protecting consumers and families from products that pose a fire, electrical, chemical, or mechanical hazard. The CPSC’s work to ensure the safety of consumer products - such as toys, cribs, power tools, cigarette lighters, and household chemicals - contributed significantly to the decline in the rate of deaths and injuries associated with consumer products over the past 30 years.

To report a dangerous product or a product-related injury, call CPSC’s hotline at (800) 638-2772 or CPSC’s teletypewriter at (800) 638-8270, or visit CPSC’s web site at www.cpsc.gov/talk.html. To join a CPSC email subscription list, please go to https://www.cpsc.gov/cpsclist.aspx. Consumers can obtain this release and recall information at CPSC’s Web site at www.cpsc.gov.

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Carbon nanotubes may be as hazardous to health as asbestos

They say the government should restrict the use of the materials, which are included in a variety of consumer products, to protect human health. In most products containing nanotubes, such as car body panels, tennis rackets, yacht masts and bike frames, the fibres are embedded in composite materials, which provide strength and lightness. In this form they are likely to be relatively harmless. But the researchers said further studies were necessary to confirm that — it was not good enough to simply assume that people could not be exposed to carbon nanotubes embedded in materials.

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For all those considering purchasing a carbon fiber sauna, read this article.  You may want to reconsider !

Carbon nanotubes the new asbestos?

James Randerson

Can be a cancer risk,say scientists

LONDON: Scientists have warned that carbon nanotubes could pose a cancer risk similar to that of asbestos, saying its use should be restricted to protect human health.

Carbon nanotubes were developed in 1991 and have proved extremely useful, conferring great strength while being very light. They are superb conductors of heat and electricity and have been touted as wonder materials that could form the basis of a new generation of electronics.

In most products containing nanotubes, such as car body panels, tennis rackets, yacht masts and bike frames, the fibres are embedded in composite materials, which provide strength and lightness. In this form the cylindrical molecules of carbon are likely to be relatively harmless.

But researchers said further studies were necessary to confirm it; it cannot be assumed that people could not be exposed to carbon nanotubes held in materials. Scientists will have to show that exposure from products is safe, said Andrew Maynard of the Woodrow Wilson International Centre for Scholars, Washington. “What happens as you demolish products or throw them away in landfill sites? Is there a chance of carbon nanotubes coming out then and exposure occurring? We simply don’t know the answer to that and that needs to be addressed,” he said. Anthony Seaton, an expert in asbestos-related diseases at the Institute of Occupational Medicine, Edinburgh, said: “Asbestos started in the same way — people used it experimentally.” The similarity between the size and structure of carbon nanotubes and asbestos fibres has always posed a question on how the former could affect lungs. The new research shows that, in mice, the tubes, like asbestos, cause inflammation of the mesothelium, the slippery membrane around some bodily organs. With asbestos fibres, the inflammation is a stage leading towards cancer.

The researchers, whose report is in the journal Nature Nanotechnology, compared the effects of short and long nanotubes. — © Guardian Newspapers Limited, 2008

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