AMWAY Files |
November 8, 1999 |
Updated 11-08-1999
Copy of the Consumer Product Incident Report that was submitted to the CPSC on Monday, November 8, 1999.
Amway's continued lack of responsibility, by failing to adequately and properly address the issues and problems surrounding Amway Metal Cleaner, and the medical emergency situation of December 15, 1998, which happened to Sherwood C. Ensey and his use of Amway Metal Cleaner, made the filing of this report necessary.
Consumer Product Incident Report Submitted by Sherwood C. Ensey
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11/8/99 2:01:27 PM
Name = Sherwood C. Ensey
Address = [Deleted for Security]
City = [Deleted for Security]
State = NM
Zip = [Deleted for Security]
Email = [Private Deleted][ensey_in_2000@yahoo.com]
Telephone = [Deleted for Security]
Name of Victim = [All information same as above]
Victim's Address =
Victim's City =
Victim's State =
Victim's Zip =
Victim's Telephone =
Describe the incident or hazard, including description of injuries:
On December 15, 1998, my left eye was injured by the highly acidic and abrasive contents that spewed out of a tube of Amway Metal Cleaner, when the seam on the tube failed and split open. The following material is also material that is posted at the internet, with pictures of the tube of Amway Metal Cleaner. http://www.oocities.org/ensey_in_2000/amway001.html The different links to the various pictures of Amway Metal Cleaner is in the issues section of the web page. This chilling and true Amway horror story starts in the evening hours of Tuesday, December 15, 1998. Most of us have little chores to do around the house on a pretty daily basis. Some of the things that we do are those necessary but little things that keep the family home running. At our house, one of those necessary and little things is the routine maintenance of the water filtration and softener system, that is responsible for providing clean and potable water to our home. Some of the internal moving parts of the water system are solid brass, and because of the tarnishing effects that the naturally acid and iron water has on these brass parts, it is necessary that the closely fitting brass parts be cleaned from time to time with a liquid or paste type metal cleaner. So the evening hours of Tuesday, December 15, 1998, became clean the brass parts after our water system slowed down and crashed because of a tarnish buildup on these closely fitted solid brass parts. So I went to the cabinet and got out the trusty tube of Amway Metal Cleaner, easily opened and cleared the opening in the tube and squirted a little out and started removing the tarnish on the brass parts. Some more metal cleaner was needed, a little more than the small amount that was used the first time, so I squeezed [no more than what is normal] a little harder on the tube to get some more out of the tube. Suddenly and without any warning, the bottom seam where the tube of Amway Metal Cleaner is joined together, gave way and separated, spewing the contents of the tube onto the left lens of my eyeglasses and completely covering up the eyeglass lens. At the same time that the contents of the Amway Metal Cleaner tube spewed onto my left eyeglass lens, some of the acidic and abrasive metal cleaning contents of the defective tube spewed up and under my left eyeglass lens into my open left eye, completely covering the left eye with Amway Metal Cleaner. Some of the contents of the defective tube also went onto the sand colored long sleeved t-shirt that I was wearing at the time, permanently and noticeably discoloring the garment wherever the contents of the Amway Metal Cleaner spewed onto the t-shirt. The extreme pain and burning sensation caused by the highly acidic and abrasive contents of the Amway Metal Cleaner tube, spewing onto the soft tissue of the cornea of my open left eye and covering it, was on me in an instant, but that feeling of pain quickly started paling in comparison to the sudden, chilling, and horrible sensation of fear that was starting to grip me as the vision in my left eye quickly blurred and started fading. Rushing past my wife in a sudden flurry of controlled fear and uncontrollable pain, and without saying a word to Virginia, I rushed into the bathroom, got under the bathtub faucet and immediately started washing out my left eye. My wife sensing that something was definitely wrong, and seeing the residue of the metal cleaner on the counter, immediately followed me into the bathroom and discovered me in the bathtub in extreme pain attempting to wash [flush] the metal cleaner from out of my left eye. Virginia then removed my head from under the water and asked me what had gotten into my left eye, and I replied Amway Metal Cleaner. She immediately noticed, and informed me that the water had not adequately diluted the metal cleaner or flushed it from my left eye, and that the eye was still covered with a layer of the metal cleaner, and that the eye appeared to be very red underneath the film of metal cleaner. Fortunately, my wife knew that we had a bottle of eye wash in our medicine cabinet from the time we worked as volunteer Emergency Medical Technicians in the area we live in. Virginia quickly flushed the left eye with the half bottle that remained of the eye wash. There was just enough of the eye wash left in the bottle to partially dilute the metal cleaner in my left eye, but not enough to flush the eye out. We were lucky that the eye wash was there, but in reality how many homes in America would have had large bottles of eye wash handy and would have been prepared for such an emergency? The reality is not many. My wife then called the Espanola Hospital Emergency Room and told them who she was, and notified them that she was bringing in her husband, and explained what had happened and what treatment she had administered so far. The emergency room then asked my wife to bring in the container of Amway Metal Cleaner, so that they could properly identify and verify the types of different contents that made up the metal cleaner that had gotten into my left eye. At the hospital we quickly found out that there was no listing of contents on the Amway Metal Cleaner tube, so the hospital staff delayed any more treatment of my left eye until they could call the Poison Control Center and verify the contents of the metal cleaner. Calling the Poison Control Center was not much more of a help, with finding out what the contents of the Amway Metal Cleaner was. All that Poison Control could tell the hospital, from what records and information that they had on the Amway Metal Cleaner, was that the product itself was listed as highly acidic, and that no listing of contents was shown for the Amway Metal Cleaner. We also discovered the fact that there was not any adequate or proper warning label on the Amway Metal Cleaner tube warning of the potential for possible eye injury, which could result from use of the Amway Metal Cleaner. For roughly the next two hours, I had my left eye forced open in a very uncomfortable position. Then I had to endure the very uncomfortable and depressing torture of the eye wash treatment, as two 1,000 ml bags of saline eye solution were washed through my left eye in hopes of neutralizing whatever unknown chemical(s) or other substance(s) it was that made up the contents of the Amway Metal Cleaner. Lacking any adequate and proper information from the container of metal cleaner, and from the Poison Control Center, about what the contents of the metal cleaner was, this became was the only treatment option open. At the end of the emergency eye treatment, the emergency room doctor on duty, Dr. Timothy Bajema, told me that the highly acidic contents of the Amway Metal Cleaner that had gotten into my eye had completely burned off the cornea, but that the cornea can rejuvenate and heal itself. Dr. Bajema told me there was a chance that I could lose part of the vision in my left eye, but he was just not sure as the eye was so red and injured he could not tell. The doctor was not sure how the cornea would heal, so he told me to contact my regular eye doctor and see them the next day as soon as was possible. The hospital staff and doctor then put some anti-bacterial ointment in my left eye and patched it closed, and gave me a prescription for some Tylenol-3. The following morning my wife called the Eye Clinic at the Veterans Administration [VA] Hospital in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and told them what had happened to me. Virginia was then told by the staff nurse on duty to bring me in right away so that I could be seen by no later than early afternoon. The eye doctor(s) at the VA confirmed that all of the cornea [the clear covering of the eye] on my left eye had been burnt off by the acidic and abrasive nature of the metal cleaner, but the eye was showing signs of making a recovery. The doctors were concerned about one spot on the eye that appeared more scarred than the rest and told me that they would not be sure about any permanent scarring on the left eye until it had healed a little bit longer and they could see better into it. The redness of the eye the day after the incident, was preventing any clear examination of the eye, and it was clear that the eye would need at least another two weeks of intense rest and recovery. The doctor also told me to leave the eye patch on a few more days and then to remove it, and to use the prescription antibiotic ointment on my eye for the next two weeks until the eye clinic could see me again. So for two weeks about all that I could do was relax. No reading as it might strain the eye. The computer was so bright I would immediately get a headache, so I could not use the computer to write and do research as I normally do during the winter months. Watching TV was out as I could not focus my left eye or concentrate on anything for a long period of time. My balance and depth perception were dramatically effected, and I would often times take a step and find myself putting my left foot down in the wrong place and falling because of the off balance effect that the injured eye was creating. Two weeks passed and the eye doctors at the VA hospital gave me a pretty good bill of health on my left eye. The eye doctor explained that the cornea had healed back pretty much to normal, and that he could see no real noticeable scarring. Overall, the eye doctor stated that I had been pretty lucky not to have had my eye injured any more than it was. The one thing that the eye doctor did notice, was that the left eye was no longer tearing or producing moisture as it normally should because of the incident on December 15, 1998, so the eye doctor prescribed some eye ointment and artificial tears for me to use during the following year. At the end of the year the eye doctor told me to have my regular medical clinic re-prescribe the eye medication for me as I would need to have it refilled, that this dryness damage was permanent. The eye doctor, Alex Herrera, then explained that I would need another eye exam for new eyeglasses, as the cornea had healed back differently, and effected the vision in my left eye. The doctor then told me that the earliest appointment that the VA Eye Clinic could set me would be on or about April 22, 1999. This difference in my vision bothered me severely until I got my new glasses in May. Going five months without a new eyeglass prescription was very difficult for someone that depends on their glasses. The new glasses helped the situation with my vision some. Since all that I could get from the VA Hospital Eye Clinic, was a single vision prescription this time around, and not the no line bifocal that I have been used to, the difficulty with my vision has not entirely gone away. Amway was soon notified of the situation and what had happened, and about my concerns. Within a number of days I was contacted by a Bert Hultink at Amway's Risk Management Office, and was told by him that Crawford & Company Insurance Adjusters handled their claims as an intermediary, and that he would have someone from their Albuquerque, New Mexico office contact me, and that I should direct any questions that I had to Larry Precious, who was head of Risk Management for Amway. As it turns out, Crawford & Company Insurance Adjusters are not an impartial intermediary in this matter. Crawford's only goal and job is to protect their clients interest, and Amway is one of Crawford's clients. The pain and throbbing were horrible for a number of days after the initial incident, and since I do not take narcotics or pain killers for many medical and personal reasons, there was not much relief from the constant pain that the injury to the left eye was causing me. Getting any reasonable and needed sleep became a battle over dealing with the constant and annoying pain. Falling asleep usually only came after I was so exhausted from staying awake and dealing with the pain, I would collapse into the sleep that I badly needed. This routine went on for day after day, for at least the next six to nine weeks. All of this is well documented in a daily journal that is still being kept. The vision difficulties [depth perception, blurring, flickering, etc] and it's many side effects that I was experiencing, and which I logged on a journal, caused me numerous little problems on an almost daily basis, but these were little difficulties compared to the one that happened on Friday, February 5, 1999 at approximately 1100 hours. Heading outside and down the flight of steps that leads down from our front porch to the walk, I put my left foot out to step down on the next step, and without warning realized that my left eye had just played a trick on me, and there was no step under my left foot. Suddenly and without warning I fell to the left and down, and as I rolled to the bottom of the flight of wooden stairs, my left shoulder, back and neck area struck a 4"x4" wood beam. Having no money to travel to the VA Hospital Emergency Room, 125 miles to the South in Albuquerque, and also owing a bill to the local hospital that Amway has still not paid, left me with the only solution. Just tough out the problems and the pain, and hope that it goes away. My left shoulder, neck and back area got better for a short while, but worsened severely by the end of July, early August 1999. Since that time I continue to have periods of time where I have a tingling and numbing sensation from the left side of my neck, through the left shoulder and down to the ends of my left finger tips. Most of the time the pain and this sensation are continual, just like it feels now as I type this article. This is not a primary question or issue of how much damage was done to my eye by the Amway Metal Cleaner. The primary issue is about the FACT and REALITY, that the metal cleaner did cause harm and damage. #1. The issue is that this supposedly safe and environmentally friendly Amway product DID IN FACT cause harm and damage, and that there is no warning or hazardous labeling of any sort on the Amway Metal Cleaner [Fig. 1&2] [Fig. 3] indicating that the contents in the tube could be hazardous and dangerous to use. The issue is about their being no warning on the packaging of any sort, indicating the contents in this product could be dangerous to use. The issue is about their being no warning labeling on the packaging of Amway Metal Cleaner indicating what the contents are that make up the metal cleaner, as is supposed to be required of products that have the potential to harm the public [people]. #2. The issue is that although there is a child warning label on the Amway Metal Cleaner packaging [Fig. 3], it is not adequate or large enough in size considering the potential for harm and damage that can happen to a child's eyes from exposure to Amway Metal Cleaner. The rationale is this; if the Amway Metal Cleaner can harm an adult, which it did, then it can most definitely harm a child. #3. The issue is about their being no protective eyewear [goggles] warning on the tube of Amway Metal Cleaner. Wearing regular eyeglasses does not afford adequate enough protection to the eyes when using Amway Metal Cleaner. #4. The issue is about the fact that when the Poison Control Center was called by emergency room staff at the hospital, on the evening of December 15, 1998, the Poison Control Center informed the emergency staff that they had no listing of what the contents were that made up the Amway Metal Cleaner. The only information that the Poison Control Center could provide the emergency room staff with about the Amway Metal Cleaner, is that Amway had listed the product in question with them as highly acidic. Let's see, basic college chemistry and anatomy tells us that highly acidic substances are dangerous to the eyes. #5. The issue is about their being no date stamping on the packaging to track the safety concerns that may arise surrounding the manufacturing, contents, and packaging of Amway Metal Cleaner. See Correction Below Please Note Correction & Update: On November 6, 1999, while setting the Amway Metal Cleaner tube up for some more pictures, part of the dried contents near where the seam split open, fell off revealing the following code numbers on the seam of the Amway Metal Cleaner tube; 3085NU9 [Fig. 4] #6. The issue is that what caused the harm and damage to come to my eye in the first place, is that the seam on the tube [Fig 1 & 2, A][Fig. 5]of Amway Metal Cleaner suddenly and without warning split apart. This in turn allowed the abrasive and highly acidic contents of the tube to spew onto the left side of my face, completely covering my left eye with the highly painful, burning, and still unknown contents of that defective tube. #7. The issue is that Amway has still not paid my emergency room bill at Espanola Hospital, and they have also not offered to pay the Veterans Administration Hospital what they owe the United States Government, for the follow up care and prescriptions that the VA has provided, and continue's to provide me with in relationship to the harm and damage that the Amway Metal Cleaner caused me. Amway at no time has offered to send me to a doctor, or to pay for anything related to the harm and damage that was caused to me, including the loss of my expensive eyeglass lenses. At this point and considering the ordeal that Amway and Crawford & Company Insurance Adjusters have, and continue to put me through, I would now only go to a doctor or doctor's of my own choosing. If I could financially afford to have those doctors now I would do it, but doctors that are private and cost money is nothing other than a luxury to my wife and I. As it is, the emergency room bill has now been written off by the hospital as a bad and uncollectable debt, and is so recorded on the credit record of both my wife and I at this time. #8. The issue is that Amway will not take fair and honest responsibility for the physical harm and damage done to me on December 15, 1998, and the subsequent related problems that their Amway Metal Cleaner caused to me when the tube ruptured and spewed metal cleaner into my left eye. #9. The issue is that as long as Amway will not address the issue of putting proper and adequate contents labeling, or hazardous warnings on its tube's of Amway Metal Cleaner, then the public remains in constant danger from this product, and what appears to be some very unfair and dishonest practices by Amway and those within it. #10. The issue is that I am an author, a financially poor one, but I still write and do research, and I was doing research on a fact based novel when the December 15, 1998 incident with the Amway Metal Cleaner happened. The nature of the eye injury kept me away from the computer and typing for the better part of that winter and well into 1999, and prevented me from progressing on the research or the book itself. Now that I can type and do research once again, pricing on some of the research has gone up from FREE to costing sums of money that I just don't have. When I could have gotten this material for FREE I had an eye injury caused by Amway that prevented me from doing so, and now that I can get the material, I am going to have to go through extra steps and the privilege of paying for the information now. Some of the material that was available then, is not available now, and in many instances finding it again is proving to be more difficult than it was one year ago. As a fair and reasonable individual, I consider the injury that happened to me on December 15, 1998, and the subsequent medically related problems, to be the direct cause of an Amway product that is a substantial hazard and danger to the consuming public. There are positive remedies and solutions to this issue, but Amway continues to be silent and to ignore the problem. Can I expect this agencies help?
Victim's age at time of incident= 51
Victim's sex = Male
Date of incident = 12-15-1998
Product involved = Amway Metal Cleaner
Product brand name/manufacturer = Amway Metal Cleaner/Amway
Product involved still available = Yes
Product model and serial number = Amway Metal Cleaner, # on seam of tube
is 3085NU9
Date product purchased = My 1993/94 year with Amway