Gerik Parmele photo Novelty lighters, like these that Columbia fire Battalion Chief Steve Sapp uses to educate parents, can be a temptation for children. A state lawmaker is proposing that they be banned in Missouri.
Posted on 12/31/2008 10:46:27 AM PST by Red Badger
It has all the makings of a holiday toy: a miniature Santa Claus that lights up, chuckles "Ho, ho, ho" and sings a Christmas carol.
But there’s a catch: To activate those cool features, a person has to flick the lighter switch and spark a flame. And that is why there’s an effort to ban it, along with other novelty lighters.
State Rep. Ed Wildberger, a Democrat from St. Joseph and a former firefighter, has pre-filed a bill that would make it illegal to sell novelty lighters in Missouri. The proposed law would specifically prohibit lighters that look like cartoon characters, animals, vehicles or food products. Lighters that play music or have flashing lights also would be outlawed.
Fire groups across the country support such a ban because the entertaining lighters pose a risk to children. "One of the things that concerns us about novelty lighters is they look like toys, and that causes children to treat them as toys, increasing the potential for accidental fires to start," said Battalion Chief Gale Blomenkamp of the Boone County Fire Protection District. "When you see a lighter that looks like a football or a toy, kids are going to be more apt to play with them."
Read more • Capitol Notes Blog: Ban novelty lighters?
To demonstrate just how fun they appear to be, Columbia fire Battalion Chief Steve Sapp has a collection of novelty lighters he uses to educate parents. In addition to the singing Santa, Sapp has lighters that resemble a deer, a pig, a ladybug, a motorcycle and a race car hood. Many of the lighters make noises or flash lights, but not until there’s a flame.
"Once there’s an open flame, kids can get a little experimental," Sapp said. "They might burn little scraps of paper. Then, unfortunately, and sometimes unknowingly, they set other products on fire unintentionally."
Sapp said he understands that to adults, the lighters are simply novelty items. "But they’re almost too tempting for a child to want to play with," he said.
Not everyone is on board with banning the items. Randy Trierwieler, manager of Midway Truck Plaza, where novelty lighters are a big seller, thinks it should be a parent’s responsibility - not a lawmaker’s - to keep lighters out of little hands. "If you have a Bugs Bunny lighter and a 3-year-old, don’t leave it out," Trierwieler said. "I don’t think it’s something you need to pass a law for. There are a lot more serious problems in this country than passing legislation determining what can or can’t be on a lighter."
Missouri isn’t the only state where a ban has been proposed. Maine and Tennessee prohibited novelty lighters this year, and a few other states and localities are considering similar proposals, according to the U.S. Fire Administration.
There aren’t a lot of data to illustrate just how dangerous novelty lighters are because fire departments don’t separate them from standard lighters when tracking causes of fires, Missouri State Fire Marshal Randy Cole said. The state does track fires set by children, though, and last year 26 of the 76 fires caused by lighters were set by juveniles younger than 16. In 2006, 29 of 75 fires blamed on lighters were started by juveniles, Cole said, noting that not all fire departments report incidents into the state’s system.
There are a handful of anecdotal reports from around the country in which children have been hurt playing with novelty lighters. Among the incidents cited by the U.S. Fire Administration:
● In 2007, a 15-month-old and a 2-year-old in Arkansas died after setting their family’s apartment ablaze with a motorcycle-shaped lighter;
● A 6-year-old in Maine last June picked up a miniature baseball bat lighter in a grocery store, flicked the switch and burned part of his face.
● One child died and another was injured in Oregon after playing with a lighter that resembled a toy dolphin.
Until a ban on the lighters is adopted in Missouri, Blomenkamp urges parents to keep them away from youngsters. "Keep them out of sight and out of the minds of children," he said. "Kids are going to be curious, and if it looks like a toy, kids are going to play with it like a toy."
Gerik Parmele photo Novelty lighters, like these that Columbia fire Battalion Chief Steve Sapp uses to educate parents, can be a temptation for children. A state lawmaker is proposing that they be banned in Missouri.
The solution is to ban all toys. Then children can play with matches.
Want to child-proof a lighter?
Keep it in your d@mned pocket!
I used to have a really cool butane lighter shaped like Godzilla.
We used it to cut bottles into pieces, just for fun.
I wonder if Columbia, MO still has it’s “can ban”. When I lived there in ‘82 you couldn’t sell any beverage in a can. It had to be in returnable bottles. I thought it was a stupid law at the time.
Acetylene "lighters" are much more fun...............
Many states have that law. They have tried to get it here in FL almost every year...........
If they didn’t find nitpicky legislative bills to introduce, they wouldn’t have anything to do and would probably have to be a “public servant” part-time and get a real job and live in the real world the rest of the time.
If you ban lighters, only children will have lighters.
Pssst! Hey, Buddy! Wanna buy some hot lighters? I got some Harley-Davidson’s and some Fords and some Chevys...........pass it on, but be careful...........
When I was a kid, I used to play with ordinary lighters obsessively. They’re fun.
When I was a kid, we had matches. Lighters were for rich people............
When I was a kid we had to rub two sticks together...
Just introduce a bill that all houses have to be built of stone like Bedrock.
Why, when I was a kid, we would have KILLED for two sticks! We had to make do with ONE stick! Ever try to run ONE stick together?
Damn, you had a stick! We had to wait till lightening struck something.
You had a stick?
/Don Adams voice
“missed it by THAT much!”
/Don Adams voice
Keep the toys and ban all children.That might work.
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