Frank Appalled to hear about this incident and the apathetic manner of the supplier. Whilst there are laws to prevent the sale and supply of dangerous goods, most are specific to a workplace and not a domestic environment. In the first place I would contact the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) who will advise the best way forward, which may be contacting your local trading standards department. Please do advise how you get on as I would be interested in the outcome. Ray

Have heard of this happening and the manufacturers answer is that people must have used abrasive cleaners on the glass. Try proving you did not!! Bob

Sorry not a real H&S issue, I know that is broad statement but it is a consumer thing. It is very difficult to prove that the manufacturer or supplier is at fault. They simple have to say that you used the wrong type of cleaner and they are covered because how many peolple can prove they did not use a cleaner that could result in the problem that they experienced. Simply another means of getting out of thier responsibility bu clever legal interpritation of the statemsnt made. Sorry just get on with life.

I would tend to agree, RayRapp. Although a Consumer Protection issue, if Trading standards are aware and they can see a trend of this happening over a wide demographic, they may be spurred to investigate. The more reports they receive, the less likely every single incident could be put down to the same manufacturer's excuse. Moreso, should someone be injured by this event, it could add weight to any attempt to claim compensation from the manufacturer if they can demonstrate the company's awareness over a long period of time.

In order to place such a product onto the market the manufacturer has to meet the requirements of the relevant standards, which in this case we can presume that they are. Above that, the manufacturer has to meet the General Product Safety Directive (GPSD) which is worded along the lines of ' No product should present an unacceptable risk in normal or reasonably foreseeable use'. The assessment of the risk comes under the EU RAPEX legislation and since this is a brand name manufacturer who is aware of this problem, you would have thought that they would have carried out such an assessment. They are not required to talk to Trading Standards if the risk is not sufficiently high. I would recommend that you report this to trading Standards and insist on a response ( Those who shout loudest...). One of the key points to stress is that because the failure is known/common then it must be 'reasonably foreseeable' and the manufacturer cannot hide behind a claim of negligent cleaning.

Most, if not all, the inner glass panels are made from toughened glass. This is fantastic stuff, but does have well known failure modes. You also find it in car side windows, glass tables, etc Try googling 'Prince Ruperts drops' to see some of the basic physics. My reading has suggested that manufacturing faults usually become apparent quite quickly and the panels in those cases fail very early. Then there is the use. If at any time a scatch can propagate through the outer layer into the inner area which is in tension the glass will fail spontaneously and spectacularly. This can happen as a result os mechanical scratching and particularly the growth of a crack due to the chemical environment (caustic substances do appear to be implicated, and these are commonly used for cleaning ovens as they are very good at removing grease). Other causes of failure are thought to come from uneven stresses imposed on the glass. Toughened glass tends to fail into pieces that are relatively safe to handle. The only way to get rid of the problem is to get rid of the glass. With today's technology, the glass manufacturers have probably done the best they can.

Bob L, I would not dare to disagree with such doyens of the safety industry. :) Thanks for your post frankc and good wishes.