IKEA North America of Conshohocken, Pa., announced the recall for repair of 23 million children’s wall mounted-lamps due to strangulation hazards. There have been two separate incidents to date of children becoming entangled in the lamp’s cord. In one incident, a 16-month old child died as a result of strangulation after he pulled the lamp’s cord into his crib and became entangled in it. In another incident, a 15-month-old child was nearly strangled the same way. Both incidents occurred in Europe.
In the United States, 2.9 million of the SMILA-series wall mounted lamps have been sold and another 1.1 million were sold in Canada, with 23 million sold worldwide. The recalled lamps were sold in eight different designs including a red heart, green bug, blue seashell, white flower, yellow moon, blue star, pink flower, and an orange seahorse.
The plastic wall-mounted lamps are 11 inches high by 11 inches wide and have a seven foot electrical cord with an inline switch. They were sold exclusively at IKEA stores nationwide as well as in the IKEA catalog and online at IKEA.com from July of 1999 through May of 2013.Consumers are to contact IKEA for a free repair kit that includes fasteners so that the cord can be attached to the wall as well as safety instructions for future use.