Consumer Agency Receives Reports Of Exploding Glass Table Tops

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HOUSTON (CBSMiami) - Glass tables and shower doors are very popular, but there are a number of reports of them shattering without warning.

Erica Glaze said no one was home when her glass table shattered. The family's security camera, however, captured the moment.

"I'm just wondering what would've happened if we were home and he (her young son) was around the table," she said.

This was not an isolated incident.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission has received hundreds of reports of shattering table tops over the past 10 years. Overall it's a rare occurrence, but it can happen with other types of tempered glass, including shower doors.

Glass expert Mark Meshulam says tempered glass was created to reduce the risk of injury. Unlike older glass that hasn't been treated and breaks into large jagged pieces. But the process of tempering glass to make it stronger and safer can sometimes create tiny imperfections.

"It's tiny, it's like a tenth of a millimeter in diameter, you really can't see it with your eye," said Meshulam.

That imperfection can lead to undetectable cracks and one day the glass gives way.

"The thing just completely explodes," said Meshulam.

Meshulam says one solution is to have a professional put safety film over glass tables and shower doors to keep it from scattering if it shatters.