CPSC Seeks Comments on Torch Fuel, Lamp Oil Packaging Petition
The Consumer Product Safety Commission is seeking comments on a petition to require special packaging for torch fuel and lamp oil to make it impossible to see the product when it is in the container, as the liquid may look like a drink to children.
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Comments are due by September 26, 2011.
Petitioner Says Fuel/Oil Looks Like Juice, Poses Danger to Children
The petitioner asserts that certain petroleum distillates, including torch fuel and lamp oil, as currently packaged, resemble juice, which is attractive to children. The petitioner states that this causes a needless danger to children, including several documented hospitalizations and the death of her own son.
Suggests Solid Container or Opaque Plastic “Non See-Through” Packaging
Therefore, the petitioner requests that CPSC issue a rulemaking to require torch fuel and lamp oil to be packaged in containers that are not “see-through,” such as in a solid container or opaque plastic child-resistant container or a metal container.
CPSC Must Determine Packaging Unnecessarily Attractive to Kids to Issue Rule
CPSC explains that the Poison Prevention Packaging Act (PPPA) authorizes it to require that certain household substances, such as torch fuel and lamp oil, be sold in child-resistant containers. However, the PPPA does not authorize CPSC to prescribe specific packaging designs, unless it determines that certain packaging is unnecessarily attractive to children.
Therefore, in order to issue a rule requiring that torch fuel and lamp oil not be sold in see-through containers, CPSC would need to determine that the packaging is “unnecessarily attractive” to children.
(See ITT’s Online Archives or 06/15/11 news, 11061535, for BP summary of CPSC launching an investigation of gel fuels used in firepots.)
CPSC contact - Rochelle Hammond (301) 504-6833
(FR Pub 07/26/11, D/N CPSC-2011-0048)