A popular French fitness blogger has died after a whipped cream dispenser exploded into her chest.
Rebecca Burger, 33, who wrote about fitness and travel on social media, where she had 55,000 Facebook and 154,000 Instagram followers, died last weekend in what her family described as a “domestic accident” at her home at Mulhouse, eastern France.
According to her family, the dispenser, a kitchen utensil, exploded hitting her chest causing a heart attack. She was taken to hospital but died the next day. The local prosecutor’s office has opened an investigation.
This week, Burger’s relatives took to social media to warn: “Tens of thousands of defective siphons are still out there.”
On her Instagram page, they wrote: “It’s with great sadness that we announce the death of Rebecca on Sunday 18 June 2017 following an accident in the home.” It was signed “her grieving family, friends and husband”.
This article includes content provided by Instagram. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. To view this content, click 'Allow and continue'.
French consumer magazine 60 Millions de Consommateurs said it had warned readers about the gas capsules in cream dispensers for years after about 60 reports of exploding siphons causing injuries ranging from broken teeth, tinnitus, multiple fractures and, in one case, the loss of an eye. The problem affected more than a dozen models produced between 2009 and 2013, the magazine said.
“Due to a fault in its conception, the siphon’s plastic cap appears much too fragile to withstand being put under pressure … as a result, the siphon could explode and injure the user and those around them,” the magazine warned.
One victim told RTL radio in 2013: “I had six broken ribs and my sternum was broken. At the hospital, I was told that if the shock and blast had been in front of the heart, I would be dead by now.”
The magazine said dispensers made after 2015 appeared to be safe. One manufacturer issued a product recall for those produced before 2015, but only 25,000 out of 160,000 sold were returned, Le Parisien newspaper reported.
Ard’Time, the company that made the dispenser used by Burger, told L’Express magazine: “We can only regret this accident, even though at this stage a link between the accident and our label has not been established. We do not accept that we have done nothing since February 2013, when the first incident involving an Ard’Time siphon was reported.”
The company insisted it had withdrawn its siphons from sale and recalled suspect models, urging customers not to use them. “We did all we could to alert everyone,” a spokesperson said. “We couldn’t do any more.”
60 Millions de Consommateurs said: “This accident is even more unacceptable because the danger from some of these siphons, a very popular kitchen utensil made even more popular by reality television cooking programmes, has been known for years.
“It took almost a year and after two serious accidents in February 2014, before [the supermarket chain] Auchan, the biggest distributor of these utensils, finally took the decision to write to 50,000 customers who had a loyalty card and had bought the Ard’Time siphon.”
The consumer magazine called on the government to organise a national campaign to withdraw the faulty products.
“In four years we have counted more than 20 accidents involving the Art’Time siphon and in seven years about 60 accident of all makes, some causing very serious injuries. But these figures are no doubt well below the real number of accidents.”