After a checkered recent history with product recalls and safety hazards, furniture company Ikea is investing heavily in safety, Fast Company reports. Ikea is launching a "Safer Homes" initiative, which includes workshops, apps, and messaging related to safety. The movement comes after in 2016 alone, six children died when Ikea dressers fell on them, prompting a 29 million unit recall.
Ikea is now investing heavily in a “Safer Homes” initiatives, which is a suite of tools and activities, “geared toward helping create a safer life at home for families and children,” according to the company’s announcement. Many aspects of this program seem to respond directly to the outrage over furniture toppling over and killing children. Ikea will also partner with pediatricians to create “Safer Homes” messages that will be displayed on screens at doctors’ offices, targeting parents and caregivers.
Ikea launched an app and a landing page devoted to the initiative, where consumers can access information about product safety. Parents will be able to create a child safety checklist based on their child’s age, and browse through rooms to see how they can make each space safer.
The site emphasizes how much Ikea tests every object within its collection: “When testing our products, we consider both intended and unintended use, to identify and minimize potential safety risks. Each product goes through a long process of testing and is not launched until we are sure that it is safe. And even after our products are launched, we continue to evaluate and test them on a regular basis, and if needed we make improvements.”
