Hurry! Buy Novelty Cigarette Lighters before it's Illegal!

Unless you want to break the law, buy your novelty cigarette lighters before it is illegal! I started researching this hub when I heard the news that the NC Child Fatality Task Force recommended a novelty cigarette lighter ban, Senate Bill 652. Three other states (Arkansas, Maine and Oregon) have already banned the novelty, or "toy-like" lighters, and US Senators Ron Wyden and Susan Collings introduced a bill in March 2009 "to ban cigarette lighters constructed to look like toys or regular household items." I found this press release on the Senate Committee on Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs website.

According to the press release, a federal ban is supported by "fire-fighting and child saftey groups." In North Carolina, the NC Child Fatality Task Force was created by the NC General Assembly in 1991 under the NC Department of Health and Human Services. The Child Fatality Task Force's purpose was to study the cause of death in childhood and to develop a system for the multidisciplinary review of child deaths, and initially to address specifically the problem of child abuse.

The Task Force actually has a pretty impressive record for 2008, including the support of bills to strengthen child abuse prosecution and to require hospitals and physicians to report serious, non-accidental trauma injuries in children to law enforcement officials.

If a child does get hurt with a lighter, why wouldn't existing laws against child neglect or abuse ensure prosecution?

I don't personally own any novelty cigarette lighters - they frankly are not very practical. But then I don't own much novelty anything! I do understand that it is up to me, as a mother, to keep any dangerous paraphenelia - novelty cigarette lighters, plain 'ole matches, rat poison, and decorative night lights - out of the reach of small children. And as a consumer of alcohol and tobacco, I understand that "adult products" are tempting to underage kids, and that we must take extra precautions to keep our kids out of harm's way and teach them as they grow to be smart about safety.

Are there really idiots out there who don't understand this? Of course there are. Kids have been injured and died after playing with novelty cigarette lighters. However, I cannot believe the statistics are greater for kids suffering after the misuse of novelty lighters than plain old Bics, Crickets or matches.

While you are deciding whether you think this law makes sense or not, consider that "nationally, drowning is the leading cause of unintentional injury death among children aged 1-4," and "most drownings among 1- to 4-year-olds occur in swimming pools," according to CHILD DEATHS IN WEST VIRGINIA 1999-2004, A Report of the West Virginia Child Fatality Review Team. Do you think we should go ahead and outlaw swimming pools, too? Then what are you going to do in West Virginia where 51% of the drowning deaths among children occurred in a creek or river?

Of 22 unintentional fire-related deaths among children in the five year period reviewed by the WVCFRT, only 3 were started by children playing with lighters. Finding specific numbers online related to cigarette lighters causing the death or injury of children would no doubt require more time than I'm ready to invest in this hub, but the letter from Wyden and Collins to Nancy Nord, Acting Chairman of the US Consumer Product Safety Commission, requesting the prohibition of the sale, import or manufacture of novelty lighters by classifying them as a "banned hazardous substance", cites three anecdotal incidents of death and injury - one each in Oregon, Arkansas and Maine, states where the ban has already been passed.

The accidental, perhaps preventable, death of any child is tragic, and if child abuse or neglect is a contributing factor, prosecution is appropriate. But punishing a large portion of the population, adults who enjoy collecting or using novelty cigarette lighters responsibly, is wasteful and unfair.