From: Glen.Strecker@f2.n390.z1.fidonet.org (Glen Strecker)
Newsgroups: misc.emerg-services
Subject: Child Resistant Lighters
Date: 16 Aug 92 13:18:56 GMT
Organization: FidoNet node 1:390/2 - The Fire Scene, Slidell LA


                BIC INTRODUCES NEW LIGHTER WITH CHILD GUARD 
 
    The newest Bic you flick will be even more difficult for young children  
to light.  BIC Corporation, manufacturer of the world's most popular  
lighters, is introducing an important advance in lighter design:  Its new  
Child Guard model is made specifically to be even more difficult for young  
children to light.  The Child Guard model has a latch to help prevent  
children from igniting it.  In tests, the new lighters with no fuel were  
given to children age 5 and under.  More than 80 percent of the children  
could not operate them. 
    The BIC Lighter with Child Guard, the result of a six-year, $16 million  
development program, will be in stores beginning July 1992. 
    "Lighters and matches are clearly not toys," said Bruno Bich, president  
of BIC Corporation.  "Sometimes, however, children get hold of them and  
there's a potential for tragedy." 
    Children playing with matches or lighters cause needless deaths and  
injuries each year.  Overall, lighters are safer than matches because they  
have a more complex ignition process and because they extinguish  
automatically when the user releases the thumb lever.  "However, even one  
fire, started by one child, with one lighter is too many.  That is why we  
resolved to make a lighter that was even more difficult for children to  
operate," Bich said. 
 
                            HOW THE LATCH WORKS 
    To light BIC's child-resistant model, users must first release a latch  
by moving it to the side and up in one continuous motion.  Only then can  
they complete the familiar two-step motion of making a flame by rotating  
the sparkwheel and depressing the thumb lever to release butane.  The latch  
automatically returns to the original position after each use. 
    Adults find the latch easy to move and readily learn the sideways, then  
upward motion it takes to release it.  But the new BIC's won't light unless  
each step is done in the right sequence.  Mastering the sequence is a  
challenge for the very young. 
 
                PRODUCING THE BIC LIGHTER WITH CHILD GUARD 
    After developing and testing a prototype, BIC had to redesign  
production and quality control equipment in order to make the new model in  
mass quantities.  BIC Lighters with Child Guard, like all other BIC's, are  
tested individually on the production line to see that each one lights and  
extinguishes properly.  Not one out of 100, or one out of five, but each  
and every BIC lighter is individually tested.  In addition, the new  
lighters are also checked individually to see that the latch returns  
automatically to the original position after each use.  In all, the Child  
Guard model is put through 70 separate quality checks on the production  
line to be sure that it performs reliably and safely. 
(continued next message) 
 
 
... OFFLINE 1.39 * Promote "Learn Not To Burn" in schools 


 

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