Defective gas regulator

On the evening of February 6 my wife put the children to bed, after which, as usual, she went into our bedroom to put on the gas heater. About an hour later, while watching TV downstairs, I noticed a strong smell of gas.

In our bedroom the gas fumes were suffocating and my eyes started to water immediately. The heater was burning normally and I turned off the gas - or so I thought. I aired the room and the rest of the house, but on inspecting the heater again I found it was still on. I tried to turn it off but could not and I then disconnected the regulator from the cylinder and it switched off.

The cylinder was new, the regulator (Lm 4.10) and heater (Lm 37.50) just four weeks old. To determine where the fault lay, and suspecting the regulator, I changed the regulator with an older, Enemalta-approved and stamped regulator, using the same cylinder and heater. I put it on again and this worked fine. However I soon had to change the cylinder as it was now empty - most of the gas in the new cylinder had leaked from the faulty regulator.

I explained the problem to the foreman at the Enemalta gas section in Birzebbuga. He carefully and thoroughly inspected and tested the regulator. I would like to thank the conscientious Enemalta personnel in this department.

I was told that since joining the EU and with free movement of goods, Enemalta no longer had any authority to check the worthiness of regulators. So anybody can import regulators as long as they meet EU safety standards. Clearly this one did not! He added that I was not the first to have complained about this particular type of regulator, and there had been other incidents.

This faulty regulator could have killed my children. This type of heating is commonly used in the majority of Maltese households. The government, which is also the supplier of gas cylinders, has the responsibility to ensure our safety.

Irrespective of EU regulations, the authorities should get involved in the testing and certification of such items as gas regulators, even though the regulator has EEC markings and is made in Italy!