OVERLAND PARK, Kan. – A metro firm has adapted a technique used by the military to make the glass table top in your living room safer.
Protective Glass Solutions of Overland Park retooled its glass service for home use after seeing a
March NBC Action News report about an estimated 20,000 glass table injuries nationwide each year.
Among those injured was an
11-year-old Rhode Island girl who died when she jumped or fell into a glass coffee table in December.
There have also been
reports of potential dangers involving coffee tables.
“When Elizabeth Alex and Mark Clegg said to you, so the only solution is tempered glass and wood tabletops and then I thought, no there as alternative and I have the answer,” Gallehugh said about seeing the report about the problems on NBC Action News.
Overland Park mom Emily Nooteboom was one of the first customers to order the treatment for an heirloom glass tabletop in her home.
She has small children at home.
“I saw the story, and I thought, we have a glass table in our house and I am always trying to keep them away from it or off of it,” Nooteboom said.
Protective Glass Solutions applies transparent films to exiting storefront windows that stand up to burglars, explosions and fire.
“It's on the Pentagon, White House, Humvees in Iraq,” said explaining the government has been using similar glass strengthening treatment for years.
We used a baseball bat to try to break glass free from a window Gallehugh’s company treated.
The wood frame failed, but the glass did not shatter loose.
“You hit it one, two, three, four, five time,” Gallehugh said describing the cracked bulges in the glass where we struck the window.
“With this, the glass is going to break, but it's all going to adhere to the product,” Gallehugh said.
“All smooth so nobody would be injured inside the building,” Gallehugh said rubbing her hand against the impact points on the glass.
In a process that takes less than an hour, Gallehugh's technicians glue on a transparent film to existing glass table tops.
The cost is around $50 depending upon the size of the tabletop.
Consumer Reports hasn’t evaluated Gallehugh’s technique for making existing coffee tables safer.
The magazine recommends replacing glass tabletops with wood or with custom cut tempered glass.
The safety watchdog is continuing to lobby the government and glass manufacturers to require tempered glass for all new tabletops.
“The use of tempered glass can significantly reduce the thousands of serious injuries incurred each year from the use of common annealed glass in furniture,” said Donald Mays, Senior Director of Product Safety and Technical Policy for Consumers Union.
