RoSPA Press Office : Press Release

February 6 , 2006
VICTIM'S MOTHER BACKS RoSPA PLEA TO EU ON “KILLER” LIGHTERS

The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents fears European Union proposals to ban the sale of cigarette lighters that are not child resistant could be thrown out later this week.

RoSPA is urging the UK to vote for the plan and is supported by a mother whose five-year-old son died after his clothes caught fire as he played with a cheap lighter.

The Society understands the Department of Trade and Industry is still examining the proposals which will be presented to a meeting of the Committee of Member States established under the General Product Safety Directive, due to be held on Wednesday and Thursday (Feb 8-9). The European Child Safety Alliance, of which RoSPA is a member, believes at least five countries are likely to block the proposals to ban the sale of lighters that are not child resistant.

Studies show that at least 20 lives could be saved and 1,200 fires avoided each year in the EU if the lighters were banned. In the United States, where child resistant lighters were introduced in 1995, there has been a 60 per cent reduction in fires, injuries and deaths caused by children under-five.

Five-year-old Jordan Millar died two months after his clothes caught fire when he was playing with a cheap lighter at his home in Belfast. He had climbed on to a washing machine to retrieve the lighter from a high shelf in August 2004.

His mother, Julie-Ann Millar, aged 22, said: “What happened to Jordan was horrific. Any lighters sold should be child resistant. I hope the politicians support a ban on the cheap ones that aren’t child resistant so that other families don’t have to go through what we’ve been through. These lighters kill children.”

David Jenkins, RoSPA Product Safety Adviser, said: “Statistics for the UK from 1999 to 2003 show that an average of five deaths and 220 injuries each year were caused by children playing with lighters.

“Burns can cause horrendous injuries, and even if a child survives a fire they may have to suffer years of painful treatment. The increased cost of making lighters child resistant - as they already have to be in the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand - is nothing compared with the benefits it would bring.

“RoSPA has long campaigned for lighters to be child resistant and we urge the UK representative on the European committee to give a ban their full support.”