EU to ban non-childproof cigarette lighters

A BELFAST woman whose five-year-old son died two months after his clothes caught fire yesterday welcomed moves to make all cigarette lighters childproof from later this year.

Under new EU legislation manufacturers will be required to fit lighters with a “push down and twist” child-resistant device similar to that used on medicines that will add a few cent to the cost of a lighter.

The EU will ban all non-childproof lighters within weeks, the European Commission said. The childproof mechanism will cost between one and five cent a lighter.