The child-resistance requirement of this Decision should
cover disposable lighters, because such lighters pose a
particularly high degree of risk of child misuse. A US
study of 1987, ‘Harwood’s study’, demonstrated that on
average 96 % of the accidents caused by children playing
with lighters were due to disposable lighters. Very few
accidents involved lighters other than disposable ones,
namely the so-called luxury and semi-luxury lighters
which are designed, manufactured and placed on the
market such as to ensure a continual expected safe use
over a long period of time, and which are covered by a
written guarantee and benefit from an after-sales service
for replacement or repair of their parts over their life
time, and which are characterised by a sophisticated
design using expensive material, a luxury image and a
low degree of substitutability with other lighters, and a
distribution in outlets in accordance with the prestige
and luxury image of the brand. These results are
consistent with the fact that people are likely to pay
more attention to higher value lighters intended to be
used for a long time period.