Consumer Product Safety

Special News 16 (The First Quarter Of The Fiscal Year 1997)

December 8, 1997

Accident Information Analysis Results of Fiscal Year 1997

To prevent accidents from reoccurring, from the fiscal year 1997, the Ministry of International Trade and Industry shortens the frequency of releasing the information from once a year to every four quarters of the year by effectively utilizing the consumer administration news (issued by Economy of Consumption Division every four quarters).

From April to the end of July 1997, the number of the accident information completing the investigation and analysis in the National Institute of Technology and Evaluation in the Ministry of International Trade and Industry was 107, among them the information of the first quarter of 1997 was 95, and the rest 12 cases were received in the fiscal year 1996.

The analysis results of the 95 cases of the first quarter of the fiscal year 1997 are as follows.

1. Situations of Accidents Classified by Articles

The accident information related to the four article fields of the combustion appliances 32% (30 cases), the domestic electrical appliances 25 (24 cases), the vehicle and the vehicle-related products 15% (14 cases) and the personal belongings 15% (14 cases) occupies 86% of the collected product accident information.

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2. Situations of Damage

Approximately 46% (44 cases) of the accidents involve the human injury and approximately 39% (37 cases) spread the damage to that except for the accidental products. In all the accidents, the casualties were approximately 9% (9 cases) and 56% (5 cases) of them were caused by the combustion appliances.

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3. Origins of Accidents

Among the accidents, those thought to be solely caused by the wrong use and careless usage are the highest, approximately 51% (48 cases) of the all, those caused by problems in design, structure, and expressions approximately 18% (17 cases), and those caused by the unknown origin are followed thereto approximately 17% (16 cases).

  1. (1)As for the accidents solely caused by the wrong use and the careless usage, the combustion appliances (25 cases) were outnumbered and the domestic electrical products (8 cases) ranked next.
  2. (2)The accidents solely caused by problems in the design, structure, and expressions were the personal belongings (8cases), the domestic electrical products (3 cases), and the fiber products (2 cases).
  3. (3) As for the accidents caused by the unknown origins, the domestic electrical products (8 cases), the vehicle and vehicle-related products (5 cases), and the combustion appliances (3 cases) occupy the all of them. Most of them were ignition accidents and the accidental products were fiercely burnt so as to be difficult to unfold the origins

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Advice to Consumers

The accidents caused by the wrong use and the careless usage of the consumer stand out and the combustion appliances, in particular, occupies 83% (accident with casualties 5 cases). The frequently occurring cases are that a person feeds oil with a kerosene heater turned on, and then a flame ignited to the oil so as to cause a fire. To prevent these accidents from reoccurring, be attentive to the follows.

  • 1 Surely put off the kerosene heater, when feeding oil thereto.
  • 2 Confirm whether the cap of a cartridge tank is surely fastened.
  • 3 Don't use the kerosene heater for drying the clothes.

Contact us

 Consumer Product Safety Public Relations Division  Product Safety Technology Center  National Institute of Technology and Evaluation
Phone number:+81-6-6612-2066
Fax number:+81-6-6612-1617
Address:1-22-16 Nankokita, Suminoe-ku, Osaka-shi, Osaka 5590034, Japan MAP