Connecticut Injury Attorney Blog

Bed, Bath and Beyond, a nationwide retailer, has issued a recall of a tissue holder because of radiation emitted by the metal used in its manufacture. The retailer has sold the product, known as the "Dual Ridge Metal Boutique," in about 200 stores nationwide since July 2011. According to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), a smelter in India may have accidentally used scrap metal contaminated with cobalt-60, a radioactive isotope, in producing the metal used for the tissue holders. Inspectors in California first identified the contamination when a box containing several tissue holders set off a radiation alarm at a truck scale. The products had arrived in the United States from India at the port of Newark, New Jersey.

A spokesman for the NRC said that the company had received three shipments of the product from India in July, August, and December, but that only the December shipment had raised alarms. Bed, Bath and Beyond is reportedly investigating other shipments to look for contamination. Although only one of the three shipments has demonstrated contamination, he says the company has opted to recall all of the tissue holders "out of an abundance of caution."

The NRC spokesman, speaking to the AP, also said that the levels of radiation contained in an individual tissue holder does not pose any specific health threat. The recall is motivated by the principle that it is better to avoid unnecessary radiation exposure. The spokesman said that a person spending 30 minutes a day near the tissue holder, for example while in the bathroom, over the course of a year would receive a radiation does roughly equal to two chest x-rays. This can be a significant amount of exposure for people with certain medical conditions and people who have a high level of other radiation exposure as part of their jobs.

Bed Bath and Beyond had another issue with a recall in Connecticut in June 2011, when the manufacturer of a product sold by the retailer issued a voluntary recall, monitored by the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection. The product, FireGel, was a gel used in citronella firepots during the summer to deter mosquitoes and other insects. The gel itself is flammable, burning without a wick. As a result, consumers could not always tell if the material was burning or not. Consumers who added additional gel to a pot they did not realize was already burning caused minor explosions and suffered burns, some quite severe. At least one Connecticut resident sustained life-threatening burns requiring hospitalization.