04 Mar 2008


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Lighter legislation changes on 11 March

Tobacco

legislation

Source : Bic UK & Ireland
There is only a matter of days until the much talked about legislation regarding lighters comes into force on 11 March 2008.

Child-resistant lighter

The penalties for ignoring the legislation are severe. Retailers can receive a fine of up to £20,000 and/or an imprisonment sentence of 12 months.

Bic is urging retailers to take action now to ensure that the lighters on their display comply with the new legislation, which dictates that three requirements are met:

• All lighters have to be child-resistant (with the exception of luxury lighters )
• All lighters must be ISO 9994 compliant
• All novelty lighters are banned

Retailers will be required to keep and to show on request documentation identifying where they obtained their supply of lighters and provide relevant ISO 9994 and Child Resistant certificates.

Peter Travers, General Manager for Bic UK & Ireland, comments: “Retailers just can’t afford to take the risk of buying and selling lighters that don’t comply. If they don’t have a compliant manufacturer and supplier in place by now, then they need to act fast to ensure everything is in place by 11 March 2008.”

Safety is of paramount importance to the company. As part of its manufacturing process, the five million lighters that it produces everyday each undergo more than 50 individual and automatic quality tests, to ensure compliance with lighter safety standard ISO 9994.

Working with organisations, including the Trading Standards Institute and The Child Accident Prevention Trust, Bic is actively encouraging compliance and raising awareness of the implementation and implications of the legislation.

Christine Heemskerk, Lead Officer Consumer and Product Safety for the Trading Standards Institute says: “We fully support this new legislation and will be encouraging our members to actively enforce its contents.

“Our aim is always to support compliant business and penalise non-compliant businesses so we will be working with Bic to raise awareness of this new legislation and encourage retailer compliance.”

Recent research has revealed that many lighters tested by accredited laboratories were still found not to comply with the ISO 9994 safety standard.

The shocking detail of this study can be found in the recently published newsletter, BICareful, available to download from www.childresistantlighters.co.uk or by calling 01895 827100.

Peter Travers comments: “It is the responsibility of manufacturers and retailers alike to ensure that lighters sold to consumers are of a high quality and, most importantly, safe to use.”

For those retailers still unsure of what the new legislation means to them, the informative BICareful newsletter is available by calling customer services on 01895 827100 or visiting and downloading it from the website www.childresistantlighters.co.uk.

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