Child Resistant Lighters

Consumer Product Safety Commission

Child-Resistant Lighters Protect Young Children

CPSC Document #5021

Children under 5 years old playing with lighters cause more than 5,000 residential fires a year, resulting in approximately 150 deaths and more than 1,000 injuries according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). Approximately 30 million households own one or more working lighters. Lighters are frequently used for purposes other than lighting smoking materials and they are often left with-in a child's reach.

Although children as young as 2 years old are capable of operating lighters, the majority of the children who start fires by playing with lighters are ages 3 and 4. At these ages, children are curious about fire but don't understand the danger. Typically, when children start a fire, they will leave the room without telling anyone about the fire.

CPSC set a mandatory safety standard that requires disposable lighters and certain novelty lighters to be child-resistant. The standard covers more than 95 percent of the 600 million lighters purchased in the United States each year.

The standard became effective in summer 1994.

Parents and caregivers are urged to:

Purchase child-resistant lighters. Remember, these lighters are child resistant, not childproof.
Keep lighters and matches out of the reach of children.
Never use a lighter as a source of amusement for children. That may encourage children to think of lighters as a toy and try to light one on their own.

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The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission protects the public from the unreasonable risk of injury or death from 15,000 types of consumer products under the agency's jurisdiction. To report a dangerous product or a product-related injury, you can go to CPSC's forms page and use the first on-line form on that page. Or, you can call CPSC's hotline at (800) 638-2772 or CPSC's teletypewriter at (800) 638-8270, or send the information to info@cpsc.gov. Consumers can obtain this publication and additional publication information from the Publications section of CPSC's web site or by sending your publication request to publications@cpsc.gov. If you would like to receive CPSC's recall notices, subscribing to the email list will send all press releases to you the day they are issued.

This document is in the public domain. It may be reproduced without change in part or whole by an individual or organization without permission. If it is reproduced, however, the Commission would appreciate knowing how it is used. Write the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, Office of Information and Public Affairs, Washington, D.C. 20207 or send an e-mail to info@cpsc.gov.