Progress on FF-type Kerosene Heater Recall

Panasonic would like to thank everyone for their support and cooperation in responding to the emergency regarding the accidents caused by the FF-type kerosene heaters.

This is the third winter since problems with FF-type kerosene heaters prompted an emergency order in 2005 that required the effort of the entire company to handle, and "efforts to prevent a similar incident from ever happening again continue" today centered on the Corporate FF Customer Support and Management Division.

In fiscal 2008, focus was put on the Hokkaido, Tohoku, Greater Tokyo, Hokuriku, and Kansai regions, and the staff of the Corporate FF Customer Support and Management Division organized local search activities to find products, to locate customers who had their units repaired in the past and recover those products, and to inspect products before the coldweather season, among other activities.

The local search activities consisted of several approaches to search out FF-type kerosene heaters:

1. they targeted vacation homes located in cold regions and mountainous areas,
2. they re-canvassed apartment buildings (door-to-door survey of apartment complexes where several registered customers already existed),
3. they followed up with customers who had their units repaired in the past but whose information lacked a model number or address,
4. they followed up people based on the sales information of home automation adapters (a part used in central control systems that are used to control air conditioners, including FF-type kerosene heaters), and
5. they surveyed retail stores that were contacted by fax or phone from the sales company's contact centers.

In fiscal 2008, they conducted approximately 320,000 inspections, found 179 products, and confirmed the disposal of 3,228 units. (In total, there were approximately 930,000 inspections conducted, 337 products found, and 3,832 disposals confirmed.)

We also continued to run ads and notices, particularly at the beginning and the end of the cold-weather season, which consisted of nationwide TV and radio ads, newspaper ads, newspaper inserts, ads on the back of receipts issued by gas stations, and drug stores, and ads in the Japanese Deaf News. In fiscal 2008, we increased our name list, and out of 4,709 units listed, we found 724, and confirmed that 3,985 have been discarded.

We still find more products on a monthly basis, and this unpredictable situation continues to unfold. With the help and cooperation of those involved, we will continue these inspection until we find every last unit.

The table below details our progress to date.