A Public Service Announcement

Two morning's ago, I awoke, rather suddenly, to an explosion. There was a loud noise, followed by a whoosh, a thump, and lots of glass shattering. The sound came from the bathroom, and for a second there I assumed a shelf must have fallen. Why would a shelf fall suddenly? No reason, but that made a lot more sense than my shower door exploding spontaneously!

Or did it?

Research on the web quickly showed that shower doors are made of tempered glass... safety glass to you and me, and the proccess that creates tempered glass can occasionally create flaws that lead your shower door, or the door on your entertainment center, or your living room table, patio table... you name it, to explode. No kidding.

Thankfully noone was hurt, but the internet is full of stories of lacerations and stitches and companies saying "its not our fault... stuff happens".


Now, I don't want to attack anybody, but here's a thought. Car windshields apparently are tempered glass, but have a safety film applied so that the millions of tiny shards of glass do not coat your body in case of a problem.

My shower? Millions of tiny cubes of sharp shards all over the place, which continued to pop into smaller pieces, like popcorn in reverse, for hours.

The question? Why does a shower door not have a safety film? If someone was in there when this happened, there would gave definitely been injuries.

Perhaps safer doors aren't as pretty? Still, where is the responsibility? I'm sure each company has a little sign somewhere on the box that the contractor threw away that says "we are not responsible", which helps them avoid lawsuits, but how about their responsibility to the consumer? Each time a child is injured by an exploding shower door, does anyone wonder how this could be prevented? A car windshield doesn't do this, so why a shower door? Where are the lawmakers?

Who protects us, and where were they when my shower door was shipped to Home Depot?

Ain't life grand? JOHN :0/