Third Party Certification Questioned in Mr. Heater Burn Case
Reprinted from The Safety Record, Volume 6, Issue 5, October 2009
HOLLY SPRINGS, MISSISSIPPI – Is third-party certification worth the paper it’s printed on? Consider the case of Frederick Hampton, who is still recovering from third-degree burns over much of his body after a close encounter with a defectively designed product that bore the Canadian Standards Association seal of approval.
On Oct. 27, 2007, Hampton was walking down the hall of his Holly Springs, Mississippi home, past his wall-mounted Mr. Heater, fueled by propane. Manufactured by Enerco, Inc., the unvented gas heater had been installed by the local gas company to replace one that had been damaged in a house fire. As he passed the unit, a flame shot out beyond the safety grill, igniting Hampton’s dress shirt. Hampton suffered third degree burns on his arms, legs, torso, buttock area, neck and hands, before the shirt was torn from his back and the fire extinguished.
This Enerco Mr. Heater model MHIRLPT30 had been certified as an Unvented Gas Room Heater by the large and well-recognized third-party lab, Canadian Standards Association. The CSA offers manufacturers six options for certification ranging from controlling everything (from testing to documentation), to the CSA controlling the process. All options to certify a product lead to full CSA certification and entitlement of use of the CSA mark. In a departure from industry standards, CSA only requires two tests per year versus a norm of four annually. The heater was allegedly certified to US standards – most likely ANSI Z21.11.2, which covers unvented gas heaters.
Third-party certification organziations providing design certifications generally require manufacturers to re-certify if changes are made to the product in order to continue to use the mark. Certifying organizations are also quick to note that they are not a substitute for quality control and manufacturing-related defects that may find their way into products.
Don Mays, Senior Director of Product Safety Planning and Technical Administration at Consumers Union, says that the certification system has been pretty robust. There are 17 companies conducting third-party testing under the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s Nationally Recognized Laboratory Testing Program – with CSA and Underwriters Laboratory among the largest. CSA became the main certifying lab for gas products after buying the American Gas Association’s certification business. While CU has seen problems with CSA-certified gas grills and melting fireboxes, that has been an issue of weak standards, not bogus certification procedures, Mays said.
Problems can crop up when certifying marks are counterfeited or when labs don’t do enough follow up inspections to ensure that the product has not undergone a design change that can potentially threaten product safety. The system could also breakdown under so-called applicant training programs. In an effort to clear a backlog, certifying labs have launched programs to train factory employees to do self-certification.
“As far as bad designs getting through,” Mays added. “They’ve relaxed the system. I don’t know how much cheating is going on, but there is that opportunity.”
Memphis attorney Pat Ardis, who represents the Hamptons in a lawsuit against Enerco and other parties, questions the validity of the Mr. Heater certification. Ardis says that the heater suffers from an inherent design flaw that causes too much propane to be released upon ignition, forcing the flame up and out of the combustion chamber and creating a burn hazard. Ardis, working with Safety Research & Strategies, has provided the information to the U.S. Product Safety Commission to investigate.
“These heaters have a single-stage propane dump and it only operates on one speed – high speed. Whenever its running, it’s running full blast and it starts up with the same intensity,” Ardis says.
See video and photos of Mr. Heater Flame rollout: