
Hoverboards continue to concern federal safety agency.
Concerns over the safety of hoverboards continue to mount as the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) has issued a letter urging those involved in the manufacturing and selling of the products to ensure they are meeting the voluntary safety standards.
Now, according to a story on digitaltrends.com, Swagway, one of the best known brands of hoverboards, has asked their customers to discontinue the use of the products until further notice. A spokesperson for the company said the move was made to comply with the letter from the CPSC, although the company believes the boards currently in transit from the factory are exceeding the new safety standard.
The CPSC has not issued a formal recall for the devices, but most feel it is likely to happen soon. The letter from the agency said many boards currently on the market fail to meet these safety standards and “pose an unreasonable risk of fire to consumers.”
The items were the hot ticket in the past holiday season, but the CPSC reports that they have received 52 notices of fires caused by the boards across 24 states, that involves approximately $2 million in property damage and the destruction of at least two homes and one automobile.
The reports of fires caused the airlines to ban the transport of hoverboards on airplanes and internet-seller Amazon has offered a full refund for its customers who bought a board through their site. Many college campuses have also banned the devices. As with any hot item, counterfeit boards have been popping up around the country and just last month, custom officers in Chicago seized 16,000 of the knock-off boards.
The CPSC want all involved with selling and manufacturing the devices to ensure they comply with Underwriters Laboratory standards for lithium-ion batteries, that are used to power the boards. The agency added in its letter, “We believe that many of the reported incidents, and the related unreasonable risk of injuries and deaths associated with fires in these products, would be prevented if all such products were manufactured in compliance with the referenced voluntary safety standards.”
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