Compensation Pay-outs for victims of Toxic Sofa Syndrome
Argos and other retailers are paying out compensation of up to €50k to Irish customers who developed burn-like rashes and blisters from a chemical used to protect sofas during shipping and storage.
The Chinese-manufactured sofas, sold by Argos and Land of Leather, caused skin allergies, rashes and burns on more than 4,000 people in the UK. One family even put down their pet dog, wrongly believing it was the cause of their problems.
A number of people have received hospital treatment for the skin condition, dubbed “toxic sofa syndrome”. St Vincent’s hospital in Dublin has warned dermatologists to look out for “sofa dermatitis” after they treated a 43-year-old housewife who had the condition for two years without knowing her new couch was to blame.
In 2007, doctors in the UK and Finland found sachets of fungicide crystals placed in Chinese-made sofas to stop the fabric, often leather, from getting damp were causing the condition. If the chemical, dimethyl fumarate, is exposed to heat, it can release toxic gas that irritates the skin.
The St Vincent’s case is reported in the Irish Medical Journal. The housewife suffered from rashes on her body for two years before discovering the cause. The rash, which started on her lower back, began four weeks after she bought a new couch. It cleared when she went on holiday but recurred when she came back. Her patch tests at the hospital tested positive for dimethyl fumarate.
In another case, Jeff and Joanne Rudd from Drogheda spent about five months applying ointments and fresh bandages three times a day to Dakota, their five-year-old daughter, before they discovered the cause, a sofa bought from Land of Leather.
Rudd said last week that he had lodged a claim against Zurich, the insurance company for Land of Leather, the furniture company that went into administration early last year. Land of Leather had agreed to compensate 350 customers in Britain who had suffered from skin allergies but, two months after its collapse, insurers said they were not liable. The Royal Courts of Justice in London ruled last month that customers who bought toxic sofas from Land of Leather were not entitled to receive compensation from Zurich.
“We tested everything from our washing powder to the bed clothes and couldn’t find out what was causing the problem,” Jeff Rudd said. “It was only when a relative who had watched a BBC Watchdog programme on the toxic sofa subject contacted us that we thought it might have been the couch we got from Land of Leather.”
The Rudds sought medical treatment and, away from the sofa, Dakota’s skin improved.
Neither Deloitte, the advisory firm appointed as Land of Leather’s administrator, nor Zurich returned calls from The Sunday Times seeking comment on the number of claims from Irish customers. A spokesman for Home Retail Group, the parent company of Argos in the UK, said he did not have enough information to comment.
Kim Smerdon, a leading personal injury solicitor at Reading based law firm Boyes Turner said "We are acting for hundreds of people who have been injured and burned by these "toxic sofas" and we believe that many sofas are still in use with the chemical DMF in them. If you are already suffering from or start to develop symptoms you should seek urgent medical advice. If you have not yet registered a claim we urge you to seek legal advice as soon as possible - time is running out to bring a claim."
Consistent with our policy when giving comment and advice on a non-specific basis, we cannot assume legal responsibility for the accuracy of any particular statement. In the case of specific problems we recommend that professional advice be sought.
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