Do you religiously work out to achieve better physical fitness? Have you ever suffered injuries while exercising? Have you ever experience personal injury from a workout device malfunction? If you have some inflatable fitness balls, you may want to check their reliability quotient.

Recently a seller agreed to pay a civil penalty of more than $500,000 to settle a claim by the Consumer Product Safety Commission that the seller knew its fitness balls could explode if over inflated. Three million of these popular workout aids were sold between 2000 and 2009. Recalled in April 2009, because of unexpectedly bursting when over inflated, these workout balls allegedly caused numerous personal injuries, including at least one fracture and various bruises.

The CPSC alleged that the seller knew of over 40 similar incidents of over inflated exploding fitness balls. The seller did report, in October 2008, that it was aware of over inflation causing random fitness ball malfunctions. The CPSC maintains that, per federal law, the seller should have immediately (within 24 hours) reported recurring problems as soon as it received information that supported a product "defect" that created a potential hazard to users.

Admitting no guilt, the seller agreed to the over $500,000 settlement amount. The fitness ball seller strongly denies that it knowingly violated the law, as the CPSC contends. The intriguing question of whether the seller had information of a fitness ball defect prior to its report filing to the CPSC remains unanswered. The issue of timely reporting of potential issues or consumer danger was the focus of the matter.

Source: Consumer Reports, "E&B Giftware to pay $550,000 penalty for failing to report defective fitness balls," Maggie Shader, Dec. 19, 2011