Fitbit Issues Voluntary Recall of All Force Wristbands Due to Skin Irritation - The UpStream

For those who own a Fitbit device, you may no longer use the Force, the company's health-tracking and pedometer wristband. The company issued a statement this week, in which it recalled all of the inventory of the device, citing skin irritant problems.

Complaints have come in from so many customers that Fitbit was forced to stop selling the Force and has issued a voluntary recall for the wristband. Any customer owning one of the gadgets can return it for a full refund.

In the announcement, CEO James Park said,

Recently, some Force users have reported skin irritation. While only 1.7% of Force users have reported any type of skin irritation, we care about every one of our customers. On behalf of the entire Fitbit team, I want to apologize to anyone affected.

From the beginning, we have taken this matter very seriously. We hired independent labs and medical experts to conduct a thorough investigation...All Force materials are commonly used in consumer products. However, some users may be reacting to the nickel present in the surgical grade stainless steel used in the device. Other users are likely experiencing an allergic reaction to the materials used in the strap or the adhesives used to assemble the product.

So what happened? While independent test results did not notice any problems with electrical or battery systems, the tests do show users are probably experiencing allergic contact dermatitis. This means that something in the device is causing a huge irritation. For it to affect 1.7 percent of the Force users though is pretty outstanding.

As someone who has skin allergies, I can tell you that I am allergic to things that have nickel mixed in, so I can attest to the issue here. I'm only able to wear pure metals like silver or gold, and forget about watches; I'm only able to buy ones that have non-metals straps and have to put a special coating on the back of the face. It's why I've held off buying devices like this or even the mostly plastic and non-metal Nike Fuel Band. However, in my years of being around people, I've yet to run into another person who has the same level of severity of this as I do, which is why, to me, 1.7 percent is such a huge number to be affected by this.

Perhaps there's a certain mix of materials that are in the Fitbit devices and Park doesn't want to go into detail. Or maybe some anomaly got into the blend during production. Either way, I'm glad to see the company doing something about even the slightest skin irritation.

Those needing assistance can reach out to Fitbit's dedicated page on the matter to get their Force processed and refunded.