By Erica James-King, Staff ReporterWESTERN BUREAU:
THE BUREAU of Standards will not be taking punitive or legal action against Industrial Gases Limited (IGL) for breaching safety standards.
The cooking gas company had been accused of allowing scores of defective cylinders bearing liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) to hit the market. The Bureau, however, said that IGL has acted "urgently" in complying with recommendations from the agency in remedying the situation "so no sanctions against the company would be justified at this time.
"We worked out an agreement and a protocol on how the company was to correct the safety breaches," Norman Hall, information officer with the Bureau of Standards told The Gleaner. "All the steps recommended by the Bureau are being followed by IGL, so there is no need to take action against IGL at this time."
And seeking to allay the fears of consumers, Mr. Hall insists that the problem with the cooking cylinders is one of durability and longevity, and not one that will cause the cylinders to explode. He emphasised that the cylinders do not pose immediate danger to the users.
"The cylinders in question are a new batch which entered the consumer market on or after April 1," he said. "They have breached the national safety standards tests with regards to the wear and tear of the containers."
In a bid to prevent a recurrence of the problem, representatives of the overseas manufacturers of the IGL cylinders met with officials from the Bureau of Standards and IGL on Wednesday afternoon.
DEFECTIVE CYLINDERS RETURNED
IGL is reporting that since it issued the public recall, an estimated 40 per cent of the 5,000 defective cooking gas cylinders have been returned to the company and its dealers.
"We have managed to recover maybe about 30 per cent or 40 per cent of the defective cylinders already," Shelly Sterling, IGL's marketing manager disclosed. "The withdrawal has been taking place during the past four weeks as we worked with our dealers and distributors. We went public on Tuesday to speed up the process of recall by cautioning householders."
Ms. Sterling further explained that the recall process has been made easier for holders of the 100-lb cylinders. "We have been going through our delivery system, to identify where the 100-lb cylinders were placed and we have been going to those householders and collecting back the cylinders and replacing them."
