Home Depot Faces Lawsuits Due to Stand 'N Seal grout sealer
Posted by
Jenny AlbanoJuly 12, 2007 5:58 PMStand 'N Seal Spray-On Grout Sealer has been generating complaints for months about adverse side effects that are sending consumers to the hospital. Now there are over 160 people across the country that have brought product liability suits against The Home Depot, seller of the product, and five other companies that helped manufacture and distribute the grout sealer. The plaintiffs claim the use of the grout sealer permanently damaged their health.
Stand 'N Seal is an aerosol chemical spray containing Flexipel -- an ingredient that should never have been produced in aerosol form. Two people have died after exposure to Stand 'N Seal
One plaintiff, James Flynn, has incurred permanent injuries to one of his lungs; he had to stay in the hospital for an extended period of time.
All the defendants are refuting the allegations against them. The companies are trying to turn the blame onto the consumers, who they say misused the product.
Flynn's attorney, Frank Ilardi, disagrees with the companies. He states that an ingredient in the grout sealer was changed, and before that there were no complaints about the Stand 'N Seal grout sealer. In April 2005, one of the ingredients, Zonyl, was replaced with Flexiple. The problem with the formula change was that the material data safety sheet said not to aerosolize Flexipel, but the manufacturing companies continued production of an aerosol spray.
The main manufacturer of Stand 'N Seal, Tile Perfect, eventually alerted Home Depot of a voluntary recall of 300,000 cans of the grout sealer. Those batches were removed from Home Depot stores, but the product continued to sell and cause injuries. Stand 'N Seal was finally removed from stores in March 2007 when Tile Perfect found out there were more batches with problems.
The companies included in the lawsuits are Home Depot, Tile Perfect, Innovative Chemical Technologies, Ortec Inc., and SLR Inc.
For more information on this subject, please refer to our section on Defective and Dangerous Products.