526.000 batteries will be recalled (again). This time, Lenovo and IBM are caught with their pants down. The announcement was made by The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (in cooperation with the 2 firms), and said that this is a voluntary recall and that consumers should stop using recalled products immediately unless otherwise instructed. 168.500 of those batteries were sold only in U.S..

The lithium-ion batteries were (are) used in ThinkPad notebooks. And are probably the same as the other Sony batteries that were recalled until now. That makes me wonder what are the other Sony clients waiting for, because I'm sure there are others. Should a laptop blow up in someone's face first, and only then a recall announce shall be made? This was surely the case now, as the announce was made only after Lenovo has received one report of a battery overheating and causing a fire that damaged the notebook, caused enough smoking and sparking that a fire extinguisher was used to put it out. This occurred within an airport terminal as the user was boarding an airplane. There was minor property damage but fortunately, no injuries were reported.

The U.S. CPSC is charged with protecting the public from unreasonable risks of serious injury or death from more than 15,000 types of consumer products under the agency's jurisdiction. Deaths, injuries and property damage from consumer product incidents cost the nation more than $700 billion annually.

The recalled products were sold (with or separately) to be used the following ThinkPad notebooks: T Series (T43, T43p, T60); R Series (R51e, R52, R60, R60e); X Series (X60, X60s). Consumers should contact Lenovo at (800) 426-7378 to determine if the battery is part of the recall. The product will be replaced free-of-charge.