As of the 14 March 2007, the EU required that lighters must be child-resistants. It also bans lighters which resemble objects that are attractive to children.
The deadline to comply with this regulation is the 11 March 2008.
Background
On the 08-09 February 2006, as requested by the Directive on the General Product Safety (GPSD) 2001/95/EC, the European Commission presented a revised draft decision to ban the sale of lighters that are not child resistant to the Committee of Member States, which gathers experts from the EU25.
The Committee gave a favourable opinion to the Commission draft proposal.
However, in July 2005, a similar proposal was rejectd by certain Member States on the ground that there was not enough evidence (accident data), it did not over all novelty lighters and it was considered as a trade barrier. It seems that some countries would block the proposal again (Germany, France, UK, Spain, Greece and Denmark).
According to the European Child Safety Alliance (ECSA), EPHA member and EPHA Environment Network (EEN), those arguments are not valid any longer. They point out that serious evidence exist, as shown by the European Commission’s paper entitled "Safety Risks posed by Lighters".
In the United Kingdom, the Royal Society for the Protection of Accidents (ROSPA) has long campaigned for lighters to be child resistant
ROSPA press release
Photos of lighters appealing to children
