Customers who purchased table lamps from popular discount store Panda Mart have been urged to stop using the products immediately or risk being electrocuted and killed.
Compliance officers from Victoria’s energy safety regulator found that lamps purchased at Panda Mart, an ultra-cheap variety store that opened its first warehouse in Melbourne’s Cranbourne last month, contained exposed wires that could cause electric shocks if touched when the lamps were on.
Customers queued up for Panda Mart when it opened, but some of its products are now under scrutiny by state and federal regulators.Credit: Gemma Grant
“I cannot emphasise how important this is. These lamps are potentially deadly,” Energy Safe Victoria chief executive Leanne Hughson said in a statement.
“We are calling on everyone who has bought a table lamp at the Panda Mart store in Cranbourne to stop using it immediately.”
This is the second time in a fortnight that Panda Mart has had its products seized. A week after opening on February 27, inspectors from Consumer Affairs Victoria seized hundreds of products from its shelves, including bike helmets, archery sets, luggage straps, toy guns, children’s make-up sets, birthday cards, glitter balls, calculators and flashing toys.
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Among the products removed were baby rattles containing button batteries that weren’t properly secured and labelled. If swallowed by children, the batteries can burn through the oesophagus in just two hours, causing severe bleeding or death, the regulator warned last week.
Household electrical products are required to be sold with the correct regulatory compliance mark, which signifies that they have met safety standards. Some of the removed table lamps had exposed wires and direct access to dangerous parts, while others had covers over exposed wiring that could be easily removed, the energy safety regulator found.
Energy Safe Victoria estimates hundreds of lamps have been purchased. Inspectors, who conducted their inspection on Wednesday, also found study desks that were unsafe due to socket outlets that could potentially expose consumers to live parts.
