NEWS-05
some of the biggest sellers over the holidays.>
some having burned homes to the ground. Today the Consumer Products Safety
Commission is taking dramatic action, announcing none of the hoverboards
currently on the market is safe and it could soon confiscate or recall
every one of them.>
LESTER HOLT (00:16:17): Big news tonight involving those so-called hoverboards that were some of the biggest sellers over the holidays. They have also been involved in dozens of fires across the country, some having burned homes to the ground. Today the Consumer Products Safety Commission is taking dramatic action, announcing none of the hoverboards currently on the market is safe and it could soon confiscate or recall every one of them. NBC`s Tom Costello has details.
(Begin VT)
TOM COSTELLO (00:16:41): It was a very close call for a family of six in Nashville, the Fox family`s home destroyed by fire. Two of their children trapped inside managed to escape by jumping out of second-story windows.
MAN #1 (00:16:52): When the door opened the-- the smoke and the flames, it was so hot that the smoke was just so black I couldn`t get into the house.
TOM COSTELLO (00:16:57): The cause of the fire, a hoverboard.
WOMAN (00:17:02): We almost lost two of our children, two of our children almost died because of the Christmas gift.
TOM COSTELLO (00:17:06): It`s just one of at least fifty-two hoverboard- related fires in twenty-four states.
MAN #2 (00:17:13): It`s on fire.
TOM COSTELLO (00:17:12): Destroying at least two homes and a car. In December the nation`s airlines banned them. For months the Consumer Product Safety Commission has been testing all makes and models, diagnosing why the lithium-ion batteries can suddenly overheat and catch fire. Today the agency notified hoverboard manufacturers, importers and retailers that all hoverboards must comply with new UL safety standards and threatened to confiscate or recall any of them that don`t. Elliott Kay (ph) runs the agency.
(00:17:42): Is there any hoverboard on the market that you think is safe right now?
ELLIOTT KAY (00:17:47): I`m not aware of-- of any that meet current standard.
TOM COSTELLO (00:17:48): Zero?
ELLIOTT KAY (00:17:50): Zero.
TOM COSTELLO (00:17:49): In December alone, Customs and Border Patrol seized more than thirteen hundred counterfeit hoverboards with potentially dangerous batteries at JFK Airport. Now any hoverboard that arrives at a U.S. port can be confiscated if it doesn`t meet the new standard. Meanwhile, with dozens of reports of users falling and suffering broken bones, safety regulators remain concern that hoverboards are inherently unstable.
TOM COSTELLO (00:18:15): If you own one, tonight the Consumer Product Safety Commission recommends putting it away and demanding proof from the retailer that it meets the new safety standards.
(00:18:24): Tom Costello, NBC News, Washington.
(End VT)
LESTER HOLT (00:18:27): We`re back in a moment with something the CDC warns Americans are not getting nearly enough off.
(ANNOUNCEMENTS)
LESTER HOLT (00:21:36): News tonight that will not come as a shock to the millions in this country who constantly find themselves tired and dragging. The CDC says a third of Americans aren`t getting enough sleep and that raises their risk of obesity and heart disease. Among other issues only sixty-five percent are sleeping seven hours or more. The researchers suggest more of us need to get to bed at a regular time and turn off the TV and electronic devices. As you`re probably saying to yourself right now, that`s easier said than done.
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