Washington, DC - The
U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission
announced today that it will begin a
rulemaking proceeding to establish
requirements for all cigarette lighters to
make those products child-resistant.
On December 31, 1987, the Commission
unanimously voted to publish an advance
notice of proposed rulemaking (ANPR), the
first step in the development of a mandatory
consumer product safety standard par
cigarette lighters. The ANPR will solicit
information from the public about cigarette
lighters, risks of injury associated with
those products, voluntary standards which
now exist or could developed, and other
regulatory alternatives.
The action resulted from the decision to
grant a petition on cigarette lighters
submitted by Ms. Mane Denton, a nurse at the
Kosair Children's Hospital in Louisville,
Kentucky. Ms. Denton requested that
disposable lighters be required to be child
resistant. In addition to granting the
petition, the Commission expanded the scope
of the ANPR to cover all cigarette lighters.
The decision to initiate the proceeding was
based on extensive information developed by
Commission staff. Among children less than
five years of age, fire is the leading cause
of death in the home. They die in fires at a
per capita rate that is twice the rate for
all other age groups combined. One-third of
these children die in fires started by
children playing with cigarette lighters or
matches. During 1985, an estimated 11,000
fire department attended fires were started
by cigarette-lighters.
These fires resulted in 180 deaths, 1,150
injuries, and 84.5 million in property
damage. Of these incidents, child play
accounted for a very high proportion of the
problem: an estimated 7,800 fires, 120
deaths, 860 injuries, and $60.5 million
property damage. As a point of comparison,
less than one percent of the 11,000 fires
were attributed to lighter malfunction. CPSC
estimates the total annual cost from
child-play cigarette lighter fires to be
$310-375 million.
While children playing with lighters is a
significant hazard, information available at
the time the petition was received was
insufficient to understand patterns of
children's use of lighters. Without such
extensive information, it would have been
difficult to identify the most appropriate
actions needed to reduce the hazard. Field
investigations were necessary to develop
this vital information.
A special field study provided detailed
information on incidents involving children
playing with lighters, helping to give the
Commission a more complete understanding of
the hazard. This field study was conducted
by the Commission in 1986-87, in cooperation
with fire departments around the country on
a comprehensive and expedited basis.
The primary findings of the study were:
-
Ninety-six
percent of the cigarette lighters
involved in the incidents were
disposable butane models, which
corresponds approximately to market
distribution.
-
The children who
operated lighters were usually less than
six years old, primarily three and four
year-olds.
-
In 63 percent of
the incidents, the child used two hands
to operate the lighter, one hand to
steady the lighter and the thumb or
index finger of the other hand to roll
the wheel and press the fuel lever.
-
Many of the
children involved in the incidents had
prior experience playing with or
operating lighters.
-
Laboratory
examination of lighters involved in
these child play related fires showed no
evidence of malfunction.
After consideration
of the special study, the Commission
concluded that cigarette lighters available
today are not child resistant. To provide
such child resistance, changes in lighter
design may be required. A test protocol is
needed to evaluate the child-resistant
effectiveness of lighter changes as they
become available. The Commission has
contract work in progress to develop a
suitable test protocol.
Throughout this work, Commission staff has
kept the American Society for Testing and
Materials (ASTM) Task Group F15.02 Cigarette
Lighters informed of the Commission's
activities. The Commission staff will
continue to work with this Task Group, and
with the industry's Lighter Association on
the development of standards for
child-resistant lighters.
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