Showing posts with label child safety. Show all posts
Showing posts with label child safety. Show all posts

Saturday, January 12, 2008

Am I the only one who thinks this is wrong?

We buy extra long butane lighters for use on our barbecue and our kitchen gas range whose auto-lighter no longer works. When it was time to replace our old lighter that was running out of fuel, Kim bought what was available and on sale, probably at Big Lots.

When I saw the new lighter, I was shocked that any company would produce such a product. The butane lighter was in the likeness of the old claymation cartoon character "Gumby" (http://www.gumby.com). I thought to myself, "Why would anyone want to be liable for making a potentially dangerous product like a butane lighter in the shape of a children's toy?" The advertising on the display box states that the lighter is "child resistant". The spring on the trigger lever is quite strong, but a determined child using both hands could probably activate it. The butane lighter is manufactured in China (isn't EVERYTHING?...don't get me started on THAT topic!) by Gibson Enterprises (http://www.gibsonent.com) for Prema Toy Company.

As a sidelight, even though Prema Toys doesn't have a website of their own, their claim to fame over the years has been suing a 12 year old boy nicknamed "Pokey" for trademark infringement because his father gave him a gift of a pokey.org website registered in the child's name. For those of you too young to remember, Pokey was the name of the horse who was Gumby's sidekick.
(http://www.wired.com/techbiz/media/news/1998/04/11846)