Kukpyowon Published Book on Last Year's Product Accident Results

Publication of '2019 Jae-pum Sago Iyagi WHY'

On the 13th, a citizen wearing no protective gear was riding an electric scooter weaving through cars on the Namsan Circular Road in Seoul. Photo by Dongju Yoon doso7@

[Asia Economy Reporter Moon Chaeseok]

#An electric scooter turning a corner lost control due to excessive speed and fell. Investigation revealed that the product exceeded the safety standard maximum speed of 25 km/h. The product was ordered to be discontinued and recalled (including product collection).

#86-year-old Mr. A complained that his back pain worsened after using a massage chair. Investigation confirmed that the cause was Mr. A's failure to follow the precautions. The company was required to make the precautions more visible.

#A fire broke out during the heat retention process of an electric hot water heating pad. Checking the KC certification revealed that the product's certification had been canceled. After investigating the illegal product, measures such as sales suspension were taken.

The National Institute of Technology and Standards under the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy announced on the 16th that it published the '2019 Product Accident Story WHY,' which contains cases of accidents occurring during product use last year and consumer precautions.

Source: Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, National Institute of Technology and Standards

Last year, the National Institute of Technology and Standards handled 74 accident cases. Among them, 25 cases deemed important for public safety were included with details of the accidents, progress, and user precautions.

By product type, electrical product accidents were the most frequent with 48 cases, accounting for 64.9% of the total 74 cases.

By type, fire and burns were the most common with 39 cases (52.7%), followed by harmful substances with 12 cases (16.2%), lacerations with 8 cases (10.8%), and fractures with 4 cases (5.4%).

Source: Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, National Institute of Technology and Standards

After investigating the 74 accidents last year, the institute took actions including 2 recalls, 3 improvement notifications, 10 illegal product investigation requests, and 40 harmful information collection measures.

Lee Seung-woo, head of the institute, said, "We compiled the product safety accident investigation cases to prevent recurrence of the same accidents and to strengthen consumer safety awareness. We will do our best to prevent product safety accidents by continuously providing product accident information through booklets, websites, and social media."

The institute plans to distribute the '2019 Product Accident Story WHY' primarily to schools and consumer organizations. For detailed information about the content, inquiries can be made to the institute's Product Safety Information Division.

The full casebook is posted on the institute's Product Safety Information Portal for free download. Starting from the 21st, it will be serialized on the institute’s social media such as blogs.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.