One of our readers, David J. sent me an email Thursday telling me that California Governor Schwarzenegger had recently vetoed a bill passed by the state legislature that would effectively ban the so-called novelty lighters. I have to be honest and admit that I was not familiar with the issue and really wasn’t quite sure what a novelty lighter is. I just haven’t been following the controversy.
But people who are involved in, and interested in fire prevention activities are certainly following this topic. In fact, there is a growing movement to outlaw the things entirely and some states have passed statutes that make it illegal to manufacture or sell them. The manufacturing clause is just a way of preventing such plants from starting up, because they are currently being made by the millions in …. you guessed it … China.
David tells me that the legislative movement began in localities with several cities and towns in Arkansas and California banning the sales of them, and then a few states have joined in – perhaps Maine and Tennessee, for example – by outlawing them on a statewide basis. Already, many state fire marshal agencies have been actively informing the citizens about the undesirability of these “toys” and are mounting aggressive campaigns to illustrate the dangers. As an example, the New York State Office of Fire Prevention and Control ran this 30-second PSA on the television stations two years ago:
The Oregon State Fire Marshal website has some good information about the topic here: http://www.oregon.gov/OSP/SFM/LP_NTLL_Program.shtml
Their state put new regulations into effect this past June and that webpage that I linked to above explains the ordinance along with this legal definition of what a novelty/toylike lighter is:
Novelty lighter is a lighter that has misleading design, audio effects or visual effects, or has other features that may make the lighter appealing or attractive to a child less than 10 years of age.
- Misleading design means a lighter has a shape that resembles or imitates an object other than a lighter.
- Audio effects include music, animal sounds and whistles, buzzers, beepers or other noises not related to the flame-producing function of the lighter.
- Visual effects include flashing lights, color-changing lights and changing images.
In that same section of their website they have THIS PAGE that has photos of scores of examples of these “toys” like these:
How do you like that dalmation wearing the fire helmet?
So now I’m coming up to speed on the problem. But I’d like to know what else is being done around the U. S. and Canada to address the issue, especially any laws being put in place. So send me an email telling me what’s going on in your area and I’ll update everybody on occasion with your information so that we can all see what’s going on with this.
Meanwhile, Inquiring Minds want to know why Ahnold vetoed California’s law. Can anybody tell us?
Well, we’d better get this equipment checked out now. I need to get some more coffee started, too. See you back in the day room.
Update notice: I’ve just added a 2nd video to yesterday’s posting about the fire in Alton, Illinois, (HERE) that includes an update and some more information about the old hotel’s history that you might find interesting.
