By B.N. Frank
Fitbits have been recalled in the past for burning wearers and again today for burning wearers.
From Ars Technica:
We wanted to “feel the burn,” but not like this —
Google recalls the Fitbit Ionic for causing burn injuries, offers full refund
Returning the watch gets you a full $300 refund and 40 percent off a new Fitbit.
Google’s Fitbit brand is recalling 1.7 million smartwatches after dozens of reports of burns from the wearable fitness device. Apparently, the battery in the watch can overheat and burn the user’s wrist. The US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) reports that Fitbit has received 174 reports of the battery overheating worldwide, with “78 reports of burn injuries in the United States, including two reports of third-degree burns and four reports of second-degree burns.”
Further Reading
Fitbit Ionic review: Meet the $300 fitness-focused smartwatch
The CPSC says consumers should stop using the watch and contact Fitbit to receive pre-paid packaging to return the device. Just fill out the Fitbit recall form here to get the return kit. There’s also an official FAQ that describes the process. Upon receipt of your Ionic, Fitbit says you’ll get a full refund for the $299 MSRP and a coupon for 40 percent off “select Fitbit devices.” Before sending in your device, it’s a good idea to erase your data; go to “Settings -> About -> Factory reset” in the watch software.
Fitbit was a pioneer in fitness devices, but the rise of smartwatches like the Apple Watch has threatened single-use fitness devices. Fitbit’s answer was to buy the smartwatch company Pebble in 2016. A year later, the first Fitbit smartwatch, the Ionic, arrived. The device was sold from September 2017 through December 2021, though production stopped in 2020. With Google’s acquisition of Fitbit in 2021, the lineage of the “Fitbit OS” devices like the Ionic, Versa, and Versa 2 is most likely dead.
Update: Fitbit sent over a statement:
Customer safety is always Fitbit’s top priority and out of an abundance of caution, we are conducting a voluntary recall of Fitbit Ionic smartwatches. We received a very limited number of injury reports – the totals in the CPSC announcement represent less than 0.01% of units sold – of the battery in Fitbit Ionic smartwatches overheating, posing a burn hazard. These incidents are very rare and this voluntary recall does not impact other Fitbit smartwatches or trackers.
Of course Fitbits, other smartwatches, and other wireless wearables expose wearers to Electromagnetic Fields (aka “Electrosmog”), Bluetooth, and wireless “Wi-Fi” radiation which can also cause burns and other undesirable symptoms and injuries. Manufacturers are required to provide warnings about radiation emissions from all “Smart” wireless products; however, these warnings aren’t necessarily easy to find or understand.
Got pets? Exposure can affect them too.
In 2021, a U.S. federal court ruled in favor of organizations and petitioners that sued the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for NOT adequately protecting Americans from wireless radiation exposure (including 5G). More recently, non-profit groups petitioned the U.S. Health and Human Services Department (HHS) and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to declare wireless radiation an “imminent” health hazard and to start warning the public.
Activist Post reports regularly about wireless wearables and other unsafe technology. For more information visit our archives and the following websites.
- Environmental Health Trust
- Electromagnetic Radiation Safety
- Physicians for Safe Technology
- Wireless Information Network
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