Posted on 10/16/2014 5:40:59 AM PDT by maggief
Christmas lights and other seasonal decorations are the target of new federal regulations as the holidays approach.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) proposed new requirements on Tuesday to prevent decorative lights from causing electrical fires and other dangers in homes around the country.
The new rules would apply to everything from Christmas tree lights to the light sculptures and animated figures of Santa Claus and his reindeer that illuminate front yards across the country. Decorative lighting that does not meet new standards will be considered hazardous, the agency said.
"Consumers can be seriously injured or killed by electrical shocks or fires if seasonal and decorative lighting products are not made using minimum wire size, sufficient strain reliefs, or over-current protection," the agency wrote.
Since 1980, more than 250 people have been killed when decorative lights malfunction, according to the CPSC.
However, the agency noted that the number of deaths caused by Christmas lights has declined to about one person each year from a high of 13 people each year in the early 1990s.
The public has 75 days to comment on the proposed rules.
Freedom From Christianity, man! Says so right in the First Amendment! [/s]
Just one. Just one. Would these clowns point to just one fire caused by christmas lights?
And to think .... we once used candles on the Christmas trees.
More Climate Change hooey. Regulate outdoor Christmas lighting out of existence.
If this saves just one child’s life it will be worth it. Better yet, simply ban all Christmas lights. Then work to ban wreaths, too. And those smelly trees in the house? Too dangerous. What about the deadly rising trend of Spooky Halloween lights? I hope they are covered by the regs, too.
The heck with it. Just ban all holidays and festivities. We’ll all be much better off. Think of all the money we’ll save.
ALL agencies now politicized.
This is an attack by secular fundamentalists.
Light-up Santa - Dangerous
Illuminated snowman - Dangerous
Light-up manger scene - Urban MINI-NUKE, call bomb-squad..!
I don’t agree with this asinine and stupid suggestion about banning Christmas lights, but you asked for one example. I can think of only one — the dancer, Gene Kelly’s, house burned down because of Christmas tree lights many years ago. But, lights may have been improved since then, too.
Also known as the Commission of Assholes.
IOW some rich politician hates his neighbor’s decorations.
This is a solution in search of a non-problem.
Stuff it! Our lights are going up...no matter what.
Merry Christmas and Joyous birthday of the Light of the World!
Do these dumb asses ever give up and come up for breath every so often? It is getting sickening for a few idiots to control the masses. On the other hand I do realize that so far no cure for idiocy and control freaks has been found.
Come and get them. Moulon Christmas lights.
Between 7 to 8 deaths per year. A number so small as to be statistically insignificant.
But my lights use ZERO electricity!
With a sunlight storage system the light is trapped between mirrors until needed!
Yes there is some phase shifting but that gives a nice twinkle!
Since China started making cheap Christmas and Halloween lights, have you noticed how poorly constructed they are?
The old American ones used to be much better made.
So, to save one person per year, we all must suffer the new regulations from our dear leaders.
I remember my father talking about real candles on trees, lit even, back when he was a kid. Now, that was living on the edge. What would today’s nannies have to say about that!!
How many people die from the homosexual lifestyle?
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