Ikea says exploding tabletop met safety standards

An Ottawa family said they found their tempered glass Ikea tabletop in pieces after hearing what they described as a "gunshot".

Ikea says an Ottawa family’s tempered glass tabletop that shattered on them last month excelled safety standards.

The Corrigan family said they were woken up by what sounded like a gunshot, only to find their glass table had exploded into hundreds of pieces in another room.

After CTV Ottawa’s story prompted questions about the safety of some imported glass, Ikea said an internal investigation showed it performed as tempered glass should.

A statement from the company pointed to Health Canada’s website, which says consumer can expect this type of glass to shatter “with significant force” because it’s under a lot of tension.

The number of particles per 50 by 50 millimetre square of glass is above industry standards for this type of glass, they said in the statement.

Ikea said they had stopped sales of that particular table during their investigation, which also used a third-party glass expert who disputed the findings of a local glass company.