Meri-Jon Artist Colony zippered bean bag chairs

Description: April 2, 1996 Release # 96-093 WASHINGTON, D.C.- As part of its ongoing investigation of zippered bean bag chairs that may present a suffocation hazard, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) and Meri-Jon Artist Colony of Lexington, N.C., announced today a major cooperative repair program for 150,000 zippered bean bag chairs.CPSC's ongoing investigation has included corrective actions and repair programs implemented by 15 other bean bag chair manufacturers. Previous corrective actions have affected over 12 million bean bag chairs.CPSC is aware of 5 deaths from suffocation and at least 23 cases where children recovered from their injuries involving zippered bean bag chairs. The children who died unzipped the bean bag chairs, crawled inside, inhaled and ingested the small pellets of foam filling. In other cases children choked while playing with pellets from unzipped bean bag chairs which clogged their mouths and noses. None of these deaths and incidents involved bean bag chairs manufactured by Meri-Jon Artist Colony.Meri-Jon Artist Colony has sold bean bag chairs nationwide since 1980 at small retail furniture stores. The chairs, which are sold in a variety of styles and colors, can be identified by the manufacturer's label on the product. Owners of Meri-Jon Artist Colony's bean bag chairs can contact the company at (800) 476-4618 to receive instructions for repairing their bean bag chairs. Bean bag chairs manufactured and sold by Meri-Jon Artist Colony with an outer zipper with no pull tab are not affected.Any manufacturer's zippered bean bag chair that freely opens should be taken away from children IMMEDIATELY. Consumers should be aware that bean bag chairs manufactured with a small, T-shaped plastic tab attached to the zipper head are in need of repair. This repair program does not affect bean bag chairs that have been retroffitted to prevent children from freely opening them. Consumers who are not sure whether their bean bag chairs are included in this repair program or need help identifying their bean bag chair's manufacturer should call CPSC's toll-free hotline at (800) 638-2772 for assistance [Learn More]