WALMART was aware of the ‘explosion’ risk of its now recalled water bottles years before pulling them from shelves.

For some, the recall came too late, with two shoppers left permanently blinded and another with severe facial injuries.

Last month the nation’s largest retailer announced the immediate recall of 850,000 Ozark Trail water bottles that it had been selling since 2017.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission said the screw top lid of the stainless steel bottles could “forcefully eject, posing serious impact and laceration hazards” when opened.

This risk was present when the bottles contained “food, carbonated beverages or perishable beverages” over a period of time.

“The health and safety of our customers is always a top priority,” Walmart said in the recall announcement.

But the recall of the $15 bottles on July 10 came years after Walmart was first made aware of the huge health risk posed by its products, the Washington Post has revealed.

Both the retailer and CPSC confirmed to the outlet that the danger was first realized seven years ago in 2018 – but Walmart denies intentionally covering up or delaying the recall.

The post reviewed CPSC documents and lawsuits finding that all three major injuries caused to shoppers by the exploding lids were reported that year within months of each other.

This detail was not mentioned in last month’s recall notice.

The first report was made in March 2018 when a couple from Georgia opened the bottle to share soup that they had stored inside it.

When they were unable to open the bottle, the unnamed man held it still while his partner tried to unscrew the lid.

“It literally exploded. The cap blasted her eyeball,” their attorney Ben Locklar said.

“I had no idea that these things can become like bombs,” he later told The Post.

Four months after that incident, in August 2018, a man in Washington state was left with a “ruptured eyeball”.

The lid “was projected with tremendous force” into his face after he filled it with apple cider and left it for a few days before trying to open it.

Then in October of that year, a woman from Massachusetts suffered “massive damage” to her jaw and face, according to a lawsuit, after she filled it with fruit juice.

All three cases were settled with few details publicly known.

Before issuing major recalls such as this, retailers and the consumer safety regulator will enter discussions about the threat posed and if it is caused by a defect or customer misuse.

Ultimately, the decision to recall usually rests with the retailer or manufacturer unless courts get involved.

After learning of the three injuries, Walmart reported them to the CPSC but no recall was advised, an official from the retailer who was familiar with the matter told The Post.

They said the retailer believed the issue was with customer misuse, not a product defect, with none of the reported injuries caused when the bottles contained water.

“Our position is that when the water bottle is used to hold water, it is safe,” they said.

But Locklar, the attorney for the Georgia couple, claimed that the issue could have been fixed with different threading on the screw top lid or a valve to release pressure.

In 2020, Walmart added a warning to the packaging of the water bottles, informing customers that storing anything inside the bottles aside from water could “cause pressure buildup and lead to lid failure and spills” and cause injuries.

The Walmart official told The Post that this “seemed to work” with just one other injury reported in 2024 as a result of the ‘explosive’ lids which was what sparked the recall this year at the request of the CPSC.

“The health and safety of our customers is always a top priority and (we) maintain that this product is of a conventional design and safe when used for water, as intended,” Walmart spokeswoman Annie Patterson said in a statement.

The U.S. Sun has reached out to the CPSC for comment.

Meanwhile, Walmart shoppers have been warned to “immediately stop” wearing “hazardous” clothing sold at stores nationwide over injury concerns.

And, batches of cookies sold at Target were recalled over fears they may have been contaminated with wood.