Lighter makers want mandatory standard

Europe has one. So does Canada. Mexico, too. But so far, the U.S. does not. It does not have a mandatory safety standard for cigarette lighters.
And that bothers the Lighter Association, which in a rare request for an industry trade group, has been begging the Consumer Product Safety Commission to order all lighters sold in this country to meet safety tests to reduce the risk of fires and injuries from malfunctioning lighters.
Often, trade associations try to fend off government regulation, but in this case, the industry has argued since 2001 that current voluntary standards are insufficient because many imported lighters fail to pass these tests. In fact, the industry has argued, many lighters that fail to meet the safety standards in Canada and Mexico are deliberately redirected to the U.S. markets. (Today, imports account for three-fourths of the one billion lighters sold in the U.S. every year. Nine out of ten lighters are disposable and China is the largest importer, accounting for more than half of the imported lighters.)

Despite the industry’s request, the CPSC staff has been reluctant to endorse a mandatory standard. In 2004, the staff said the risk of death of injury from lighter malfunctions was low given the number of lighters on the market. But the petition was granted by two CPSC commissioners, and one directed the staff to continue to "gather data" on whether lighters were a "big enough hazard to justify a federal rulemaking proceeding."

A recent report issued by the CPSC staff suggests that things haven't changed much. Although the staff didn’t specifically say it was against a mandatory rule, it noted that the estimated risk of injury associated with lighter malfunctions that potentially involved products that didn’t comply with the voluntary standard was about 1 injury for every million lighters.

The risks are low -- even though the staff did find that slightly less than half -- 42 to 45 percent -- of the lighters on the market don't meet the voluntary standard. Conformance was the highest -- 79 percent --among Lighter Association members, while lighters from nonmembers met the standard only 30 percent of the time. Among countries, lighters from China had the lowest conformance rate, also 30 percent.

The staff said that from 1997 to 2005, there were 362 reported incidents of lighter failures, of which 65 percent resulted in fires leading to 4 deaths and some serious injuries. That’s more than the agency reported in 2004, when it reported 256 incidents and three deaths between 1997 and 2002.

That additional death is one reason the staff should adopt a mandatory standard, argued David H. Baker, the association’s general counsel. “Why should you ignore a hazard that the industry has brought to your attention and says this needs to be regulated?"

Baker said association members want mandatory standards to help reduce their legal liability. He explained that members often get sued for fires resulting from malfunctioning lighters. In many cases, he said, the lighter was destroyed in the fire, so there’s no proof of who made the lighter. But the easiest targets are the well-known brands such as Bic, Scripto and Swedish Match -- companies that are members of the association, Baker explained.

“This may not be ATVs” which account for hundreds of deaths a year, Baker said. Even so, he said, "why not deal with the problem?”

CPSC spokeswoman Julie Vallese said the proposal to regulate cigarette lighters is still active. However, she added, “it’s a matter of resources when lighters go and how quickly it moves through the agency.”