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NEWS

Novelty Lighters In The NEWS

On February 10th there was a hearing in New York City before the Committee on

Fire & Criminal Justice Services in Regards to Banning The Sale of Novelty

Lighters in the Big Apple.  There is a bill pending  in Congress to Ban them Nationwide.

 

The opposition to this product is shrouding the facts that it is for “Child safety”   Novelty lighters are CSPC Approved, this means that they have gone thru the Federal Testing to ensure that a “Child” cannot light them, whats more disturbing is that Not all Lighters have to be “Child Resistant”   Colibri, Zippo have absolutely NO Safety Device whatsoever but those items are apparently not a threat??  BIC has a metal band that is easily disabled, One of the main opposition parties to Novelty Lighters happens to be the General Counsel for the Lighter Association whos members by the way include BIC, Calico, Cricket, Ronson and Zippo,

Funny that the Big Business’s own counsel is leading the fight,  Please help support the cause, You have rights too….. DON’T BUY BIC, CALCO,CRICKET,RONSON & ZIPPO Lighters, They want the marketplace to themselves, Boycott their products, Long Live Novelty Lighters.  If you are interested in helping protect your rights to own and operate a novelty lighter please fill out the form at the bottom of this page, Your comments will be recorded and saved, Thanks for your support.  

 

Sue

 

The following information was submitted to the committee at the hearing, all the facts quoted have come from the US Fire Admin, NFPA, FEMA and CPSC

 

Stats from Children and Fire in The US 1994-1997(FEMA, United States Fire Administration) (“Children”) state that of the fires that resulted in child deaths 94% were residential fires (p. 14).  Over one-third of all fires involving child injuries and deaths were the result of open flame (id. at 17).  Matches as the form of ignition remained relatively constant over the four years.  There was a consistent yearly decrease in injuries and in deaths related to lighters over the four year period (from 22.2% in 1994 to 12.6% in 1997).  (Id. at 17).  This is proof that the CPSC Doc 5021 instituted in 1994 which required  child-resistant mechanisms for lighters was working.  (Consumer Product Safety Commission (“CPSC” 5021). The report also states that from 1993-1997 matches as the form of heat ignition in 58% of children playing fires were still the most common form. (Children, p. 18).

An article titled “Study of the effectiveness of the US safety standard for child resistant cigarette lighters” by LE Smith, MA Greene & HA Singh state that there was a 58% reduction in fires caused by children age 5 and younger in a report published in 2002 due to the CPSC regulation.

According to Statistics for a ten-year period reported by the US Fire Administration Residential Structure and Building Fires (October 2008), between 1996 thru 2005, the percent of fire deaths have gone down by 18.1 percent (p. 15). The NFPA estimates reflect that 83 percent of fire deaths occur in residential structures (p. 13) .  According to the 2005 report the  causes of residential fires were Cooking (40%), Open Flame (12%) (which includes candles, matches & careless cause), Heating (13%), and Smoking (19%) Playing with a heat source (0.6%),  (pp. 18-20). 

In January 2009 an article “Children Playing With Fire” written by Jennifer Flynn for NFPA states “that 2006 structure fires, deaths, and injuries are the lowest ever recorded.”  (Exec. Summary, i).      Why aren't Colbri, Ronson & Zippo required to have child resistant devices on their products?  If you drop a lit Zippo lighter it continues to burn, a novelty lighter needs pressure on theigniter to remain lit.  Bic and Scriptos safety devices are easily removed as well as easy to light.  If a child could have the overall strength to depress the igniter down on a novelty lighter they surely could easily light a Bic, Zippo or any other lighter as well. What about matches?  According to the US Fire Administrations report 58% of children playing fires were started with them. This is a unfair attack on a product that has been in compliance with the CPSC.  By banning novelty lighters this will have no effect on children playing fires, they will continue to use matches, Bics and the rest that have no childproof mechanisms.

I fail to see why banning an item that is currently in compliance with the law, while allowing other types that are  available and which are easily disabled or not in compliance at all to remain in the marketplace.  It seems self defeating, those items are much more a bigger threat. It seems more practical to make all lighters child resistant and to educate the public and reinforce the need for fire safety.

 

 

Resources    

Children Playing With Fire by Jennifer Flynn NFPA January 2009 - Executive Summary

US Fire Administration - Residential Structure & Building Fires Oct 2008 FEMA US Dept of HomelandSecurity p.13,15,18-20

Children and Fire In The United States 1994-1997p14,17,19

Consumer Product Safety Commission -Child-Resistant Lighters Protect Young Children CPSC Document #5021 1994

Study of the effectiveness of the US safety standard for Child resistant cigarette lighters by LE Smith, MA Greene, HA Singh www.injuryprevention.com v192-196 2002

 

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