Class Action Blog : Consumer Fraud, Consumer Protection, Securities and Antitrust Lawyer & Attorney : Meiselman, Denlea, Packman, Carton & Eberz

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You may have received an email recently, or heard stories from friends, that the venerable Pyrex brand cookware is susceptible to “exploding” and/or shattering when used in the oven or microwave.  Pyrex, of course, has always prided itself on the fact that its dishes can be used safely in baking food in the oven or microwave, used to freeze foods and is dishwasher safe.  So should consumers be concerned that Pyrex dishes are not as safe as they once were, or as safe as the company that now manufactures Pyrex dishes claims?

For example, rumors are circulating over the Internet that Pyrex dishes, originally manufactured and sold by Corning, were indestructible because they were made of borosilicate glass.  Purportedly, once Corning sold the Pyrex brand to World Kitchen (a Chinese based company), the dishes were no longer made in the U.S. and were no longer manufactured by using borosilicate glass.  Instead, World Kitchen was manufacturing Pyrex dishes in China by using soda lime glass which is allegedly not as indestructible as borosilicate glass and a lot cheaper.  Today, Wal-Mart is the largest distributor of Pyrex products, and the Pyrex dishes consumers grew to love and trust is not the product they think it is.  That is, it is not as safe or indestructible as the Pyrex dishes originally manufactured by Corning.

The truth, however, is a bit more complicated than the narrative described above.  First, all brands of glass bakeware may be susceptible to breakage under certain conditions, particularly when subjected to extreme changes in temperature.  Glass bakeware is not, in every case, “indestructible.”  However, although glass bakeware is not “indestructible,” there are hundreds of consumer complaints on the Internet of sudden breakage involving Pyrex branded glass bakeware.  Moreover, as of 2008, the Consumer Product Safety Commission (“CPSC”) had received 66 complaints about Pyrex incidents over the last ten years.  Second, the claim that when the Pyrex brand was sold by Corning to World Kitchen, World Kitchen immediately changed the material used to make the dishes from borosilicate glass to lime-glass is not completely true.  In fact, Corning itself began manufacturing Pyrex dishes out of soda-lime glass -- instead of borosilicate glass -- back in the 1940’s.  Finally, the rumors quoted above claim that World Kitchen is a Chinese based company that manufactures its Pyrex branded bakeware in China.  Not true.  World Kitchen is a subsidiary of WKI Holding Co., which is based in Rosemont, IL and manufactures its products in the U.S.

Nonetheless, some critics have maintained that Pyrex dishes are involved in a number of dangerous shattering incidents, allegedly caused by negligent manufacturing of Pyrex dishes.  For example, U.S. Senator Dick Durbin has called for an investigation of Pyrex, some critics maintain that the Pyrex dishes sold today are inadequately tempered and other critics maintain that World Kitchen’s product instructions are allegedly insufficient, misleading and/or deceptive.  And, as noted above, there are hundreds of consumer complaints that can be found online describing Pyrex dishes shattering after normal use, sometimes ending with someone being severely injured.

If you have purchased Pyrex brand glass bakeware, and have been injured as a result of the bakeware shattering, please contact us to discuss your legal options.