Any residents of Pennsylvania who recently purchased Sony Bravia TV sets should be careful. They may have purchased a defective product.

According to a report by Bloomberg BusinessWeek, Sony Corp. in mid-October recalled 1.6 million of its Bravia flat-panel TV sets for an important reason: A defective component may cause them to either melt or start on fire.

The Bloomberg story says that Sony launched the recall following a September incident in which a customer in Japan discovered smoke and a small fire coming out of the TV set. In all, Bravia owners have reported 11 such incidents in Japan since 2008. According to the Bloomberg story, the incidents have resulted in no injuries.

Though it's not certain yet, a spokesman for Sony said that the fires may be caused by a flawed component in the televisions' backlight systems. This component might be overheating enough to melt the top of Bravia TV sets.

This isn't Sony's first overheating recall of this month. Bloomberg reported that KDDI Corp., a mobile phone operator based in Japan, is replacing Sony-made batters in as many as 2 million handsets. The reason? The batteries might cause the handsets to overheat and melt.

Analysts quoted in the Bloomberg story said that while no company wants to experience back-to-back recalls, Sony is probably a big enough company, with enough products, to survive the bad publicity over its Bravia and battery recalls.

Still, if you own a Sony Bravia flat-screen TV, make sure to read the company's recall notice. You certainly don't want your TV to cause a fire in your home.

Source: Bloomberg Businessweek, "Sony Recalls 1.6 Million Bravia TV Sets Because of Fire Risk," Mariko Yasu and Takashi Amano, Oct. 12, 2011