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 FAKE lighters which could send a ball of flaming gas into a user's face have
been found on sale in Dundee shops.
The mechanism which should regulate the flame on the counterfeit Clipper
refillable lighters has been found to be unsafe.
Dundee City Council environmental health and trading standards staff has
warned shoppers to check they are buying the real thing, amid fears that
thousands of the unsafe products could have been sold around the city.
A customer who had bought one of the fakes highlighted the problem to trading
standards officers, and checks on a number of shops in Dundee and Glasgow
confirmed the possibly harmful lighters were on sale.
A trading standards spokesman said: “These lighters are potentially very
dangerous and must be cleared from city shops as soon as possible before someone
is seriously hurt.
"We are asking every shopkeeper to check their shelves to make sure that the
lighters they are selling are not imitations.
"Anyone who has bought a Clipper lighter in the past few weeks should also
check it as a matter of urgency to ensure it’s the real thing."
The fakes are understood to originate in China, and the company which
produces the genuine refillable Clipper lighters, Spanish firm Flamagas, is
aware of the problem.
Customers can tell the genuine article from the copies by checking the red
pin in the base of the lighter which is removed to refill the product on the
genuine article. On the fakes it is does not come out, and therefore is not
refillable.
Shop owners who may have bought these lighters are being asked to return any
packages they suspect of containing the fakes to the point of purchase.
No one has been hurt by any of the fake lighters.
Anyone who is concerned about the lighters should call Dundee City Council's
environmental health and trading standards department on 01382 436260.
Image by Keith Johnston
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