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Oct 2, 2009 10:34 am US/Central
The iPod: Shuffle, Repeat, Catch Fire?
MIAMI (CBS) ―
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Some customers have filed complaints against Apple, Inc. over their iPods overheating. (File)
CBS
The iPod, no longer is it just for the young and hip. From older adults to young kids, iPods are everywhere, but few realize they could pose a hidden danger.
Jamie Balderis says her brand new iPod shuffle overheated while she was running last year.
"At first I thought 'How in the heck did I get burned right there?' Then I realized that I had my iPod right there," she told CBS station WFOR-TV in Miami.
Jamie had a burn the size of a quarter on her chest where the iPod was clipped to her shirt. "My skin started burning really bad, like a bee sting that wouldn't stop," she recalled.
Haley Mooney had a similar experience with her iPod. "I picked it up and it was really hot and so my first instinct was to drop it so I didn't burn myself," she said. "I looked at my hand; it was red and started to get swollen. It was like touching the inside of an oven."
Haley's mom, Tami Mooney and Jamie Balderis both called Apple. Jamie even sent the company photos of her burn. Both women say they got the runaround.
"I was so frustrated because frankly, they didn't care," Tami said. "They didn't care that my child was burned, they didn't care the possibilities that other children were burned."
Jamie asked the company representative for documentation about other incidents with overheating iPods. She wanted to know what Apple was doing to correct the situation.
"He said that I wouldn't be able to have access to it," she said.
But that paperwork does exist. Documents in an 800 page federal investigation by the Consumer Product Safety Commission include 15 burn and fire related incidents filed by iPod owners.
Tami Mooney also asked Apple if the company had another reports of overheating iPods.
"They said, oh no, we haven't heard of this one yet," she said.
But the documents show Apple did know they had a problem with iPod batteries causing fires and burns. The company was notified of complaints filed with the Consumer Product Safety Commission including a 17 year old Illinois girl who awoke to find her iPod Nano "smoking and sparking".
A Staten Island man said he got a minor shock and some redness to his hand when he yanked his iPod shuffle from the USB port after noticing sparks. Another complaint describes smoke billowing out of a teenage girl's bedroom because her iPod had caught on fire.
The government of Japan issued a warning to consumers after it received similar complaints, but the Consumer Product Safety commission downplays the risk.
In a memo contained in the documents, the CPSC said: "No significant injuries or property damage have occurred in any of these incidents. No pattern of defect can be shown. The number of incidents is extremely small in relation to the number of products produced, making the risk of injury very low."
Apple has issued a statement. "iPods are incredibly well designed and safety is the highest priority for Apple. The number of confirmed incidents of batteries overheating is less than 0.0001% of all iPods sold, which is an incredibly small percentage and none of those incidents caused serious injury or serious property damage. If a customer has any concerns about t heir battery they should contact AppleCare."
Tami Mooney says that doesn't mean much to the people who did get hurt.
"For one child to get burned, that's too many. I don't care how small a number, you know there's a problem," she said.
The government ordered apple to continue to report any additional incidents involving overheating or burning iPods to the Consumer Product Safety Commission. The agency said it will assess any new information and take action if necessary.
(© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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