Norfolk, VA Personal Injury Attorney Reports: Fears Over Chinese-Made Lighters Prompt Safety Investigation

The Consumer Product Safety Commission plans an investigation of a brand of Chinese-made cigarette lighters after receiving reports of hundreds of injuries and at least one death among users who have had the lighters explode.

According to KHOU.com, a 51-year-old from Texas (TX) died from burns he suffered when one of the MK brand lighters allegedly flared up and “exploded” in his pants pocket. That would be just one of the 917 cigarette lighter malfunctions happen every year, many of them causing victims to end up in hospitals with burns on theirthe faces, fingers and hands. The federal government estimates that, annually, property and other damages from lighter accidents totals $31 million.    

This video shows a lighter exploding.Some lighters have exploded without being set on fire.

As experienced Virginia (VA) product liability attorneys, my colleagues and I are concerned about any product that has the potential to injure or kill. We have reported on many products from China that are problematic. In October 2011, we reported on the recall of about 3,400 frog masks that were manufactured in China but sold in Target. They were found to be a suffocation risk. And in 2009, Little Tikes Co. recalled about 1.6 million toy trucks and workshops after an 11-month-old boy got a plastic nail lodged in his throat. Those products were made in China.

Some toys manufactured in China have killed children. Last year Family Dollar Stores, of Charlotte, North Carolina (NC), voluntarily recalled about 1.8 million toy dart gun sets after two children were killed by these toys.

DM