European Commission figures show that 40 people are killed and 1,900 injuries are caused by non-refillable, disposable lighters across Europe every year. Many incidents involve children. A recent survey across 11 European countries found that one in 10 respondents have had or know someone who has had an accident linked to a pocket lighter.
In step with market surveillance authorities and consumers across Europe, the Malta Standards Authority has been active over the last three years in removing those disposable lighters that are not compliant with the EU ban from the Malta market.
The Authority’s Market Surveillance Directorate works closely with customs authorities who make a 100 per cent check on lighter imports. Last year, the Market Surveillance unit inspected 182 different samples of lighters, referring to Prosafe guidelines for the appropriate identification checks made on-site.
Market Surveillance Directorate head Michael Cassar said: “Up until now, we have experienced no injuries of children in Malta through the handling of disposable lighters that are not compliant with EU legislation.
“But we still take our precautions to preclude this. The joint action with Prosafe is one way we are ensuring that our efforts are properly coordinated in this respect.” Mr Cassar added that many manufacturers and importers bypass border patrols, not declaring products that are lighters under the title ‘lighter’. As a result, Malta Customs check every consignment of lighters. Certificates, too, are checked for anomalies. These anomalies can give clues as to the false identification of products intended for import into Malta. And in some cases, they have sent lighters that do not conform to EU specifications, for testing in the UK.
Nearly 75 per cent of imported lighter models tested by Prosafe, the Product Safety Enforcement Forum of Europe, do not meet the safety standards requirements in the EU despite a European Commission decision to ban the marketing of non-compliant lighters.
Yet the capacity of non-compliant disposable lighters (as opposed to non-disposable lighters) to maim and kill fail to tally with the current safety expectations by European consumers who are under the impression that those products that enter Europe are checked before they reach the consumer. Consumers believe that products marked with the appropriate ISO 9994 and EN standards conform to EU laws, even if these products and their manufacturers may not respect those standards in practice.
Current European lighter imports taking place at Rotterdam from China and other Far Eastern countries place a heavy burden on the Dutch ports authorities with some 900,000 non-food containers passing through that port every year.
BIC, the manufacturer of compliant disposable lighters, has made a formal complaint to the European Commission to force the Dutch authorities to take appropriate action, having exhausted all other means of resolving the problem with their cooperation.
A new poll published by BIC and independent pollsters APCO Insight shows that nearly 87 per cent of Europeans are worried by information that pocket lighters with the capacity to kill and maim are openly on sale across the continent.