A Perth woman has suffered serious burns to her face and upper body after an accident involving an ethanol burner. The 28 year old woman from Safety Bay was visiting a friend’s home nearby on 28 October 2016 and they were sitting outside when an ethanol burner was lit. The burner exploded and engulfed the woman causing serious injuries. She spent 17 days in an induced coma and is still recovering...

With Acting Consumer Protection Commissioner David Hillyard As the warmer months approach, many of us have a list of home maintenance tasks to tick-off and that might include sprucing up hard-to-reach places during a ‘Spring-clean’, emptying gutters or pruning trees in the garden. It’s timely to talk about a growing and troubling product safety issue relating to the way ladders are used,...

With Acting Commissioner for Consumer Protection David Hillyard It’s now easier for you to check whether your consumer goods are safe thanks to the new Product Safety Australia website www.productsafety.gov.au , which I would urge you to add to your favourites and make use of. There were 670 recalls across the country in the last financial year compared to 596 in the previous financial year. The...

An interim ban on electrically unsafe self-balancing scooters, also known as hoverboards, has now been introduced as a mandatory standard for the next two years. Self-balancing scooters are also known as gliders, smart boards, sky walkers or mod boards. Most two-wheel scooters are manufactured in China and range in retail in price in Australia from $150 to $1,000. The original ban came into place...