Dan Rather Reports –
Gas Can Danger in the Media

“DAN RATHER REPORTS” REVISITS INVESTIGATION ON THE DANGERS OF CONSUMER GAS CANS”

OCT 3RD, 2011
Three years after the initial investigation, more data, and more deaths, manufacturers have not changed.

This Tuesday’s “Dan Rather Reports” revisits an investigation into a product that sits in millions of garages across America – plastic consumer gas cans. These red plastic gas containers, sold in many retail locations, can unexpectedly explode, sometimes simply from contact with static electricity.

Independent studies have shown that the fix for this problem is cheap and easy, install a flame arrestor (a small screen in the nozzle) to prevent the gas from igniting in the can.

However, Blitz USA, the main producer of these plastic gas cans still has not begun to install these devices into their small consumer gas cans.

In the three years since the initial investigation, the gas can manufacturing industry agreed to fund independent testing and hired the prestigious Worchester Polytechnic Institute to conduct the tests. In three out of the four tests, the gas cans exploded.

According to Diane Brenneman, an attorney representing many of the victims of these gas can explosions, even these results did not convince Blitz USA that changes needed to be made.

When asked what Blitz did in light of the study, Brenneman told Rather that they did, “absolutely nothing.”

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