12 Dec 2012
Eight people have now died because of a “known” manufacturing fault on a cooker, an inquest in Cornwall into the death of two men from carbon monoxide poisoning has revealed.
The two men, from Saltash, were the seventh and eight victims of the defect, the inquest found.
Richard Smith, 30, and Kevin Branton, 34, died in November 2010 when the grill of the Flavel cooker in their property, in Moorlands Lane, Saltash, produced high levels of carbon monoxide.
The inquest heard from Gary Webster, of Cornwall trading standards, who said that at least six other people had died as a result of the cooker’s defect.
In a statement the cooker’s manufacturer Beko said that it became aware of a safety risk if the grill was turned on while the door was closed in November 2008 and had began a product recall.
Although it had attempted to contact more than 21,000 customers to warn them, the company said there were still 6,998 affected and untraced cookers in the UK.
Christine Heemskerk, Trading Standards Institute officer for product safety, said: “They’ve done their best, it was some time ago now.
“With recalls 20% is considered a quite good rate – this is about 60% which to be honest is pretty good.”
Copyright Press Association 2012