Tennessee Distributor Agrees To Pay $180,000 Fine For Selling Illegal
Cigarette Lighters
WASHINGTON, D.C. - The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC)
announced today that Popular Products Inc., and its owner Charles
Heflin, of Memphis, Tenn., have agreed to pay $180,000 to settle
allegations that they knowingly sold disposable cigarette lighters that
failed to meet government requirements for child resistance. The fine
settles a lawsuit that was filed by the U.S. Department of Justice in
the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Tennessee.
The CPSC alleged that Popular Products and Heflin violated the Consumer
Product Safety Act in 1996 by selling cigarette lighters that were
labeled as having a child-resistant safety mechanism, but in fact did
not contain the mechanism. These lighters had their child resistant
mechanisms removed by Donald Anthony, who is currently serving a federal
term of incarceration for a felony conviction associated with these
illegal actions.
"Kids are more likely to start fires with cigarette lighters that are
not child-resistant. This case underscores CPSC's determination to
enforce our life-saving safety requirements," stated Acting Chairman
Thomas Moore.
Since the enactment of the safety standard for cigarette lighters in
July 1994, deaths to children are down 43 percent. Before cigarette
lighters were required to be child-resistant, fire loss data revealed an
estimated annual average of 7,250 residential structure fires, 190
deaths and 1,290 injuries that resulted from children under 5 playing
with lighters. The resulting risk of death in those fires was more than
three times the risk in residential fires generally.
