The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) announced today that Premium Tobacco Stores Inc., doing business as Cigarettes Cheaper, and The Customer Company, both headquartered in Benicia, Calif., have agreed to stop the sale of disposable cigarette lighters that fail to meet government requirements for child resistance.
As part of the same case, CPSC is seeking civil penalties from the retailers and three of their corporate officers based on past sales of non-child-resistant lighters. CPSC is charging that the stores purchased some 184,000 non-child-resistant lighters in 1996, and sold or offered to sell them to the public.
During April 1999, after previously agreeing to stop selling non-child-resistant lighters, Premium again sold or offered for sale such lighters, this time to CPSC investigators posing as consumers. In some instances, the salesperson removed the child-resistant safety mechanism in front of the investigator. The illegal acts last month took place in Premium Tobacco and Cigarettes Cheaper stores throughout California, specifically stores in Petaluma, Daly City, Alameda, Redondo Beach, Gardena, Santa Ana, Walnut Creek, Oceanside, San Marcos, Encinitas and Los Angeles (Westwood).
Before cigarette lighters were required to be child-resistant, fire loss data revealed an estimated annual average of 7,250 residential structure fires, 190 deaths and 1,290 injuries that resulted from children under 5 playing with lighters. The resulting risk of death in those fires was more than three times the risk in residential fires generally. The standard, which went into effect in July 1994, should prevent 100 to 130 fire deaths each year associated with children under age 5 playing with lighters. The estimated annual net societal savings are nearly $500 million, consisting of reductions in deaths, injuries and property damage.
CPSC Chairman Ann Brown said, "Rarely does CPSC find a company so callously undermining our safety requirements. We will vigorously enforce this requirement that helps to prevent young children from playing with lighters and starting fires. Hundreds of Americans -- sometimes entire families -- die every year from home fires related to lighters."
About the U.S. CPSC
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) is charged with protecting the public from unreasonable risk of injury associated with the use of thousands of types of consumer products. Deaths, injuries, and property damage from consumer product-related incidents cost the nation more than $1 trillion annually. Since the CPSC was established more than 50 years ago, it has worked to ensure the safety of consumer products, which has contributed to a decline in injuries associated with these products.
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