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Don't be lit by your lighter.

“Be careful how you handle lighters as they can cause injury under certain circumstances if used incorrectly” – this warning is from the Consumer Health and Safety Department of SABS Regulatory and follows after a recent incident when a man’s face and fingers were severely burnt. In another incident a vehicle was damaged when a cigarette lighter ignited spontaneously.

Consumers should not be alarmed by these incidents, but they have to take note of the danger of damage of property and of injury to the face and hands if disposable butane lighters are used incorrectly.

Sonnika Coetzee, Manager of the Health and Safety Department of SABS Regulatory, said that consumers should pay special attention to the following safety hints:

• Watch where you put your lighters. Do not expose cigarette, cigar and pipe lighters to direct sunlight for too long as they can explode if left in the sun. Hot spots inside cars such as on dashboards can be dangerous when flammable or explosive products are put there and lighters should therefore be removed from cars when left in the sun. This also applies to LPG canisters and aerosol cans.

• Lighters may leak gas if they are dropped. This could result in excessive flame heights or a fire or an explosion.

• Signs that indicate that lighters are faulty include:

• Flames that flare up or splutter;
• Flames that don’t extinguish after use;
• A lighter that leaks fuel;
• Lighter casings that crack or components that come off – if dropped they can cause fuel leaks or fire risks;
• Weak cases can cause lighters to explode in hot conditions; and
• A lack of safety warning information on the product or packaging.

• Lighters are not for children. All lighters are dangerous in the hands of children and should be kept out of their reach.

Sonnika said that lighters must comply with the compulsory performance safety requirements set by the international standard ISO 9994:2002, Lighters Safety specification. This standard has been adopted as a South African national standard (SANS 99:2003) and establishes the safety requirements for lighters to ensure a reasonable degree of safety for normal use or reasonably foreseeable misuse of such lighters by users.

A compulsory specification for the safety of lighters (VC 8076: 2002) was gazetted in the Government Gazette on 18 October 2002.

For more information or to report suspect lighters or a cigarette lighter incident, consumers and retailers should call the Consumer Health and Safety Department of SABS Regulator (012) 428-6043 or fax them (012) 428-6116.

Source: Health and Safety Newsletter. 3/7/05: http://www.regulatory.co.za/HS/LIGHTERS.html

Cigarette, Cigar & Pipe Lighters

All cigarette, cigar and pipe lighters that are manufactured in, imported into and exported from the Republic of South Africa shall comply with the requirements of the Compulsory Specification for the Safety of Lighters as published by Government Notice No. R. 1279 (Government Gazette No. 23928) of 18 October 2002. (SABS)

Cigarette-ignited fires are a leading cause of fire deaths in the United States. The Trauma Foundation has led a twenty-year effort to reduce cigarette-ignited fires by advocating for fire safety standards for cigarettes. In 2003, a major victory was won in Canada's when the Canadian Parliament passed a fire-safe cigarette law.  In the U.S. in 2000, two groundbreaking events occurred in this area -- New York State passed the nation's first law requiring the establishment of a fire safety standard for cigarettes sold in the state, and Philip Morris began mass production of a commercial cigarette (its Merit brand) that is less likely than conventional cigarettes to ignite a fire. Philip Morris' PaperSelect technology uses "speed bumps" in the cigarette's paper, which causes an unattended cigarette to go out. The cigarette's reduced ignition propensity was confirmed in testing by the National Institute on Standards and Technology.

http://www.tf.org/tf/injuries/cigar5.shtml