October 10, 2001

Safetyforum.com Reports:
Hazardous Futuro Shower Safety Stools

Safetyforum.com has issued a request to Futuro to voluntarily recall its Shower Safety Stool (Item 287600), stating that the stool poses a risk to the public, in particular to the elderly and physically disabled. Although Futuro claims that the stool is designed to accommodate a person weighing up to 250 pounds, Safetyforum.com has received a report from a 215 pound man who fell on his back when the Futuro Shower Safety Stool he was using collapsed.  He suffered minor bruises.  It appeared to witnesses that the Futuro stool's anodized aluminum legs buckled, thereby rendering the stool unstable and causing the man to fall on his back in the shower.

The legs of the Futuro stool appear to be made of cast aluminum and are bolted to a plastic seat by a single nut and bolt screw assembly.  It was purchased at an Eckerd's Drug Store in Northern Virginia and assembled by the store.  A similar shower stool provided to the man by a Kaiser Permanente affiliate a week later was made of metal or steel legs of a heavier gauge and reinforced by crisscrossing bars.

Safetyforum.com urges Futuro to recall the shower stool and remove it from the market until such time as the product can be reintroduced as a safe and reliable product.

Futuro is a brand of Beiersdorf AG, a German company with hundreds of affiliates around the world, including Beiersdorf, Inc., which is based in Wilton, Connecticut.  Beiersdorf also manufacturers products under the Nivea and Curad brands.

Eckerd, a Florida-based subsidiary of J.C. Penney, operates 2,900 drugstores in 20 states.

Kaiser Permanente is a health maintenance organization (HMO) with headquarters in Oakland, California. Kaiser Permanente serves 8.1 million members in 9 states and the District of Columbia.

Safetyforum.com has filed a formal complaint regarding this product to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, Beiersdorf, Inc., and Eckerd Drug Store.

CONTACT: Safetyforum.com, Russwin Francisco, 703-469-3700