434. Child Proof Lighters (June 10, 1993)
Oh right, the other day I was cleaning out my bookmarks in Chrome and I ran across an article (archive) from 1987 I saved for some reason about lawsuits mounting against Bic because of suspected defects in their disposable lighters. Lighters exploded, burning people, and in some cases killing people. Further down in the article, I found this:
In addition to claims that its lighters leak, Bic is also under attack by those who say its lighter should be made ''child-resistant.''
According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, 200 people a year die from lighter-related injuries, and 125 of them are children. At the request of Diane Denton, a burn unit nurse from Louisville, Ky., the commission is considering whether to require that all disposable butane lighters be made child-resistant.
''We have enough data to be concerned, but it will be a while before we decide what should be done.'' said James Hoebel, who heads the commission's inquiry. Ed Lewiecki, who heads an industry group on lighter safety standards, said his group had approved new voluntary standards providing for more tightly controlled flame heights and increased warnings. But, he said, ''Making lighters child-resistant is not so simple.''
Bic's statement said: ''Today, to our knowledge, there is no way to manufacture a lighter that works easily for adults and yet foils the advances of children without also destroying the usefulness of the product.''
Buuuut, By 1992, Bic was selling a child proof lighter, after five years of research, and millions of dollars spent 2 ...
... but it was a poor seller:
Linda Kwong, a spokeswoman for Bic, said that the company's child-resistant model retailed for about 10 to 15 cents more than Bic's regular disposable. It has not sold well, she said. 1
The operating instructions were on the back of that white rectangle card inside the packaging. Linda, again:
Bic goes a step further, hiding its operating instructions inside a safety warning label.
Kwong said the company was being "extra-cautious" because it thought children might be able to read the operating diagram.
"I'm a mom and the engineers who designed this are parents and we know these little ones are smart. We wanted to do everything we can," she said. 3
The lighter’s description makes it sound like it was difficult to use:
Before a Child-Guard lighter can be ignited, a safety latch must be moved to the side, then up into a special opening. The latch automatically returns to the lock position after each use. 2
Welp, two years later it became mandatory that all lighters become child proof:
Federal regulators, saying that more than 150 lives are lost each year in fires started by children playing with lighters, ordered manufacturers today to make virtually all butane lighters child-resistant.The Consumer Product Safety Commission voted 3 to 0 to require that the lighters be too difficult for most children under 5 to operate. The new standard applies to all disposable butane lighters, inexpensive refillable lighters and novelty lighters that resemble toys or depict cartoon characters. It extends to lighters manufactured abroad as well as domestic lighters.The commission estimates that the new requirement, which will take effect in the summer of 1994, will save at least 100 lives a year. 1
This is a bunch of Bic lighters pre-child proofing mandates:
Note the wheel. This is a current made Bic lighter:
That little smooth wheel is there to prevent weak little kids hands from flicking the wheel. Now I know there are ways to take them off, but I’m not showing that to you guys because I’m responsible.
These are the lighters getting safety tested (commercial). Look at ‘em go:
I wondered how they tested the lighters so kids couldn’t operate them easily. I found it:
To evaluate their effectiveness, lighters are tested with 3- and 4-year-old children.
Children are given lighters that contain no fuel and produce a sound instead of a flame and asked to try to make them work. If unsuccessful after five minutes, they are given a demonstration and asked to try again. If, after five more minutes, 85 percent of the children are unable to operate the lighter, it meets the CPSC standard.
During and after testing, children are told that the only reason they are being allowed to touch the lighter is because it is not real. They are told never to try another one. 3
Oh, and those fancy pants lighters like Calibri were not included in the new mandate. Apparently kids didn’t start fires too often with them. 3
But yet butterflies can.
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1. Press, The Associated. “LIGHTERS REQUIRED TO BE CHILD-PROOF.” The New York Times, June 10, 1993, sec. U.S. https://www.nytimes.com/1993/06/10/us/lighters-required-to-be-child-proof.html. (archive)
2. “Bic to Launch a Child-Safe Butane Lighter.” Los Angeles Times, August 26, 1991. https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-08-26-fi-1015-story.html. (archive)
3. Call, JODI DUCKETT, The Morning. “LIGHTERS MUST BE CHILD RESISTANT UNDER NEW PRODUCT-SAFETY RULE.” mcall.com. June 20, 1994. https://www.mcall.com/news/mc-xpm-1994-06-20-2971551-story.html.
