Tomorrow Ikea will reportedly announce a recall of over 27 million Malm dressers. And shockingly, the Swedish furniture company is doing away with the piece of furniture altogether. Many versions of the Malm dresser were officially removed from the Ikea website today.
According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, three American children have died since 2014 from Malm dressers crushing them. The pieces are so top-heavy that they pose a serious tipping risk. Neither the US Consumer Product Safety Commission nor Ikea are commenting on the recall yet, telling the Inquirer that they’ll be releasing statements tomorrow. But a government source told the Inquirer that this recall was “unprecedented.”
It’s not clear if all sizes of the Malm dresser will be affected by the recall. But 27 million is quite a few units. That’s roughly the population of Texas. Or, to put it another way, that’s roughly the population of 35 North Dakotas.
The Malm will be remembered as an affordable and utilitarian piece of pulp wood that kept so many Millennial socks in their little sock drawer and so many Millennial T-shirts in their little T-shirt drawer. The Malm will also be remembered for feeling like it was perpetually on the verge of just falling apart in your hands if you closed a drawer even a little too hard.
We’ve reached out to the US Consumer Product Safety Commission and will update this post when we hear back.
[Philadelphia Inquirer via the Consumerist]