Consumer Watch Shredder Danger

Consumer Watch Shredder Danger

By Kirby Adams

We’ve been telling you the importance of shredding any of your documents or mail that have your personal information on them in order to protect you from identity theft. Now however, we need to warn you about a danger with the shredder themselves.

During the past five years, as home shredders have become more popular, but 47 people, most of them children under the age of 2, have been injured when a part of their body, usually a finger, gets into the blades.

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Paper Shredder Safety Alert

The opening to the feeder in some shredders is simply too large to keep objects other than paper out. Now the Consumer Product Safety Commission is issuing a warning to parents of children under the age of 12.

And there are other simple ways to protect against injuries from home paper shredders.

Buy a shredder with an off button.

Shredders that cut the paper into ribbons are not as dangerous as cross shredders, which shred the paper into confetti.

Finally, keep the shredder up off the floor when you are not using it. And never let your kids play with it like a toy.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission, along with Underwriters Laboratories, are working on mandatory standards that would require all shredders to be made with more narrow openings and less flexible material.

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