Paloma Industries Ltd. has issued a recall for some 260,000 gas water heaters made between 1980 and 1989 after they were linked to 20 carbon monoxide deaths since that time and the president was summoned Wednesday to the Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry and told to speed up the firm's probe into the fatalities and to take preventive steps.
Kenkichi Hirose, head of the ministry's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, told Paloma President Toshihiro Kobayashi and another senior official in charge of water heater production to "check all products in question as quickly as possible," and find out why some people had altered the safety device on its heaters, which led to several of the fatalities.
Kobayashi apologized and told reporters after the meeting that the firm plans to finish checking the safety of all its products in a month.