Dearest Delores,

About 3 years ago I sent you a letter telling you about or son Marc who was
burned in a terrible accident and was in Salt Lake City, at the University of
Utah burn trauma unit at the hospital.  He was hospitalized for a year and is
home with us, and altho it is hard sometimes, he is making strides everyday.
 He has since had numerous surgeries and the latest is to have his ankles
fused so he no longer has to wear braces to walk.  This has made a big impact
on all of our lives and made him a little more independent.  He doesn’t need
me to put his braces on before he can get up in the morning and he can now
wonder around the house on his own.

Just the little things, like eating and using utinsils has made a difference.
 When he first came home I spent alot of time crying and didn’t think I could
do it.  Listen to me I COULDN’T DO IT.  The care givers deserve alot of
praise, I tell you that because I didn’t think I would ever find myself in
this situation. Marc will be 34 years old on the 7th and I thank God everyday
I still have him in my life.

It has been hard, at times.  He cursed me, said things he didn’t mean to say
when I was giving him a shower, and that is the worst thing of all for me.  A
mother should never have to give her 7 foot 285 lb son a shower.

When you sent the book “THE POWER ANGELS”, I read it and keep your little
verse about the gift in my purse and have given copies to burn survivors on
the Burn Therapy floor at the hospital.  I hope you don’t mind.

Thank you again for helping me to stay sane.
You really are a “POWER ANGEL”

Victoria
Great Falls, Montana

Call For Action to all Burn Survivors, Co-Survivors and other Interested People: 

Monday, May 19, 2008, is the deadline to submit public comments to the US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) regarding their Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPR) on upholstered furniture flammability.  The CPSC’s notice can be found here: http://www.cpsc.gov/businfo/frnotices/fr08/furnflamm.pdf. 

Please join me in making YOUR views about this subject known.  Send an email to the CPSC’s Office of the Secretary at cpsc-os@cpsc.gov by Monday, May 19, and put “Upholstered Furniture NPR” in the subject line.  Please use your own words and talk about your own experiences. I think the CPSC needs to have a better idea of the human cost of fires, and they need to be encouraged to be more aggressive about trying to prevent the tragedy and devastation that upholstered furniture fires can cause. 

Here is some background:

The CPSC proposal addresses ONLY ignitions of furniture by cigarettes (that is, smoldering ignitions). It is important for furniture to resist ignitions by cigarettes, for sure.  Unfortunately, the CPSC decided not to address ignitions of furniture by small open flames such as matches, candles or lighters – which we know can result in devastating deaths and injuries because the filling materials in upholstered furniture are the biggest single source of fuel in a home.  Mattresses are now protected by a federal CPSC regulation that requires them to resist a LARGE open flame as well as a cigarette ignition.  So why is there a double standard when it comes to upholstered furniture?

The other problem I have with the CPSC’s proposed rule is that only the cover fabric has to resist a cigarette ignition in most cases – and that means the filling material doesn’t have to be made to resist fire at all!  Barriers under the cover fabric would be a good solution, but in the CPSC’s proposal they would be needed only in those few cases where the cover fabric is easily ignited by a cigarette. Otherwise, a furniture maker could stick anything under the cover fabric, even if it is highly flammable, and not have to protect it!  If that filling materials catches fire, people in the house have maybe 3 minutes to escape before they are goners.

The CPSC seems to want to avoid any use of fire retardant chemicals to meet a standard.  Fire retardants either help prevent ignition or make something burn more slowly.  I certainly don’t know enough about one chemical vs. another, and I sure don’t want to see people harmed by a chemical even if it prevents fires. But there are lots of ways to meet tough fire standards, and new technologies are being developed all the time.  If one particular chemical or group of chemicals is not good for people or the environment, then don’t use it – but don’t let manufacturers off the hook altogether by making them meet a weak standard that most upholstered furniture will pass today without even making any changes to the way the furniture is made. I can’t point to anyone whose life has been destroyed by a fire retardant chemical, but I know of lots of people whose lives have been destroyed by fires. So let’s not be so quick to shut the door on technologies that might prevent the most painful and shattering thing that can happen to an individual and his or her loved ones! 

The CPSC has been studying upholstered furniture fire safety for 15 years or more.  It is upsetting to me that the best they could do is propose a weak standard that addresses only the cigarette part of the fire problem and still leaves furniture vulnerable – and maybe even more vulnerable than before – to fires from open flames like candles, matches and lighters.

I hope you will join my call for a tougher furniture fire standard that will truly protect consumers, and not let the furniture makers off the hook.

PLEASE read my letter to CPSC.

Thank you and God Bless,

Delores

Dear US Consumer Product Safety Commission,

How important is fire prevention to you? Do you believe that fires and burns are rare and only happen to other people and other families - therefore, you don’t have to concern yourself with prevention?

Well apparently, that is what the US Consumer Product Safety Commission believes by proposing an inadequate flammability regulation pertaining to upholstered furniture. You can’t just address part of the furniture fire problem and think it is good enough. You have the power to protect the public; unfortunately, it isn’t the public’s best interests you are protecting, it is the interests of the furniture industry. As a burn survivor, I find this to be offensive.  I heard the furniture industry’s weak arguments against being regulated when I testified before the California Bureau of Home Furnishings in 2003. All they care about is economics.

I have to ask, before making this inadequate ruling for upholstered furniture, did you obtain input from the fire service and burn survivors? Or was it just the furniture manufacturers you approached? Because I have to tell you, this ruling is like putting a band aid on a cancer; it isn’t going to stop the cancer. Fires from candles and lighters will increase because you will require no protection against these sorts of ignition sources. When you decided on this course, did you take into consideration that the highly flammable polyurethane foam and other filling materials used in furniture would get a free ride and continue to flash over homes across the nation because you are afraid to require protection for these materials?

Shouldn’t “Consumer Product Safety” mean just that? I don’t find “Protect the Lobbyist” anywhere in your title, yet that is exactly what you are doing with your proposed rule on upholstered furniture. How can you live with yourselves?

Sincerely,

Delores Lekowski

A concerned burn survivor

Novelty Lighters: Is the Tide Turning?

By Delores Lekowski

Burn Survivor & Fire Prevention Advocate

Author of The Hurting Angels, The Power Angels

This is the second article I have written about novelty – or toylike – lighters in the past year.  I wish I didn’t have to, but I never cease to be amazed at how reckless manufacturers are to produce a product that can be so attractive and yet so dangerous to children. I recently learned that over 70 million toylike lighters are imported into the United States every year.  Seventy million!

I recently saw some new novelty lighters at the check-out counters of two popular retail stores.  One of the novelty lighters was of a pink pig. At first glance, the pig looked as though it was wearing a silver metal hat. Upon further inspection, the hat was the wheel you run your finger across to light it. Upon doing this, the lighter lights, and two streams of flame come out of the pigs nostrils. The second lighter was disguised as a double-barrel shotgun, and this lighter produced two lines of flame, one out of each gun barrel.   

Two weeks later, I was in another popular store, and there were the toylike lighters, sitting on the bottom shelf of the rack, at a small child’s level, a level that this adult had to bend and stoop to be able to reach.  Here I found a variety of novelty lighters.  The first one I picked up was of a guitar; when you lit it, different colored lights would start flashing up and down the neck of the instrument (and what child is not attracted to colorful flashing lights?). The striker was on the side of the guitar, and the flames shot out of the top of the body.  Next, I picked up a fish; this lighter was about 3½” long, and when you flipped the head, it opened the lighter. I then picked up a motorcycle with moving wheels. The handlebars flipped up, and this is where the striker was and where the flames would come out. There was also a surfboard lighter and a frog lighter. Not one of these lighters seemed to have a child-resistant mechanism, and all of them looked like toys! 

 I had to ask myself, who is buying these, and why?  They would not fit in any person’s pocket, and nothing says class like a woman pulling a pink pig out of her designer bag.  If these lighters were left out on display somewhere as a conversation piece within reach of an inquisitive child, I am afraid the only conversation you might be having would be with a 911 operator, calling for help. 

The good news is that steps are being taken in some states to outlaw these lighters, so hopefully there will not be a need for me to write a third article on this subject.  In March, Maine passed a ban on toylike lighters that went into effect immediately upon signature by the governor.  In early April, the Tennessee legislature passed a ban that is awaiting the governor’s signature.  They join several local jurisdictions in Arkansas, California and Washington State that have banned the sale and distribution of toylike lighters over the past year. Other states and localities are considering similar measures. This is an effort that is finally gaining momentum. 

The National Association of State Fire Marshals (NASFM), and particularly the office of the Oregon State Fire Marshal (OSFM), are at the forefront of efforts to encourage more activity to ban toylike lighters.  On April 2, NASFM and OSFM jointly sponsored a booth to educate the public about the dangers of toylike lighters as part of the Congressional Fire Services Institute’s Fire and Emergency Services Showcase on the National Mall in Washington, DC.  Tourists in town to take in the sights, including the Smithsonian Museums and the cherry blossoms, also learned about how to recognize and keep toylike lighters away from children.You can join the effort to get novelty/toylike lighters off of store shelves and out of children’s hands by considering the following activities:

·         If you have any of these lighters lying around, either dispose of them or lock them up in cabinets away from access to children!  Spread the word about this hazard to friends and family as well.

·         Write to Nancy Nord and Thomas Moore, Commissioners of the US Consumer Product Safety Commission (get contact information at www.cpsc.gov) and ask them to ban the sale and importation of these dangerous and pointless products.

·         Contact local retailers that carry toylike lighters and ask them to take the products off their shelves.

·         Contact your State Fire Marshal and other state and national officials and ask them to promote state legislation to ban the sale and distribution of toylike lighters.

·         For more information and background on the dangers of toylike lighters and efforts to ban them, visit the Oregon State Fire Marshal’s website at http://www.oregon.gov/OSP/SFM/Novelty_Toylike_Lighters.shtml. The trend toward “no novelty lighters” is picking up speed, and you can help to move it along!  

A Square Box with a Window: How Your Child Sees the Microwave Oven

By Delores Lekowski

One of the best ways to keep your children safe from burns or other harm is to view their world the same way they do. A child looks at the microwave as a box with a window — nothing to be scared about, right? However, four children every month receive third-degree burns from these very safe-looking appliances. What’s wrong with this picture? We teach our children about the dangers of our stoves early on. They know from a young age not to grab anything off the top of these appliances, because we have told them repeatedly, “Don’t touch, it is HOT!” If they do touch the front of the oven while it is on, they can feel the heat. This reinforces in them that the stove is HOT, and that they must stay away from it. On the other hand, we can touch the microwave when it is cooking, and it doesn’t feel hot. When we take something out of the oven we always use a potholder. But how many of us use a potholder when removing food from a microwave? A child would naturally assume that the microwave is not hot. In fact, even if the container holding the food feels only warm, the contents can be scalding. Food cooked in a microwave often heats unevenly and can end up frozen in one place but burning hot in another.Most of our microwave ovens are conveniently put on a kitchen counter within a child’s reach. The majority of the burns caused by microwaves happen when a child is getting something out of these ovens and tips the hot contents down his body. After all, the door wasn’t hot when he opened it, so how could he get hurt? The microwave is a tremendous timesaver for all of us; I don’t know how we did without it. While enjoying all of the wonderful technology we now enjoy, however, we need to update our safety precautions. Just the way we as children were taught, over and over, that the stove is hot, we as adults must also treat the microwave as a danger to our children. In other words, keep the microwave off-limits to them, the same as we do our stoves. We wouldn’t think of letting a child get something out of the regular oven. We forbid them to use the cooktop. You probably would not let a young child use the coffee pot or the crock-pot. So why are we letting them use the microwave? Would you allow your child to boil water on his own? When a child cooks a cup of noodles in the microwave, he is basically boiling water.So when you teach your children about safety in your home, remember to include the safe use of the microwave oven. Better yet, make the microwave totally “off limits” to any child under the age of 7, and properly teach and supervise children over age 7. Finally, remember never to hold a child in your arms while removing items from the microwave - because even grownups can sometimes forget that it’s not just a “box with a window.”  

A must See Video! Please click on “Empty Shoes” to the right. This profound video on YouTube will make you realize how important fire prevention is.

Could An “Arc Fault Circuit Interrupter” Have Prevented This Fire?

By Delores Lekowski

Burn Survivor and Fire Safety Advocate

Author of

The Hurting Angels and The Power Angels

National statistics compiled by the Consumer Product Safety Commission show that more than 40,000 fires are caused annually by problems with home wiring. For the last decade, electrical wiring systems have been one of the leading causes of fire deaths, claming 350 lives per year and costing more then $650 million in damage.

The owner of this home had a power tool plugged in to charge the battery, and this is where they believe the fire originated. It was just before bedtime, and the residents were getting ready for bed when they noticed smoke coming from the garage.  They were able to get out safely, but had this fire started after they had fallen asleep, they may not have been able to escape. As you can see, their home was destroyed, and the home next door was also damaged.

An Arc Fault Circuit Interrupter (AFCI) might have prevented this house fire. Let me go into more detail on how an AFCI works. An arc is a discharge of electric current across a gap. Normal arcing can occur when we pull a plug from an outlet or when a switch is turned on. An “arc fault,” or a hazardous arc, can occur in exposed wires but more commonly in the wiring hidden behind wall surfaces and cords that are damaged or deteriorating. Such conditions can result in a flow of electric current that is erratic, which can cause temperatures to exceed 10,000 degrees F. Such extreme temperatures will not only burn away the insulation on a wire, but it also will solder wires together. AFCIs electronically sense arcing and can tell the difference between a normal arc and an unwanted arc. AFCIs can detect unwanted arcs in a home’s wiring system all the way up to the appliance that is plugged into an outlet, and will “trip” (shut down) a circuit when it detects the problem, thus stopping a potential fire before it has a chance to start.

AFCIs can be installed as a replacement for most conventional circuit breakers in panel boxes and will provide all the protection that conventional circuit breakers provide, in addition to protecting against arc faults.  They do NOT replace Ground Fault Circuit Interrupters (GFCIs), which protect people against the risk of electrocution and are required by code to be installed on outlets near water, such as in kitchens and bathrooms. Both AFCIs and GFCIs are needed to provide both kinds of protection

If it was an unwanted arc that caused the house fire pictured above, an AFCI would have detected it and shut down the circuit before a fire had a chance to start. This house was an older home, built in the 1960s with older wiring – a perfect reason for installing this technology. But even new houses will become old someday, and electrical wires can be damaged by nails and screws that are concealed inside walls and ceilings in all homes, both old and new. So all residences can benefit from this technology.

As of January 2002, AFCIs became a requirement in the bedroom circuits of new homes being built according to the National Electrical Code® (NEC), which is a model code.  Once a safety measure is in the model code, the battle is only half-won, however: it still needs to be adopted by state and local jurisdictions.  But while fire safety advocates have been trying to expand newer editions of the NEC to require AFCIs for all the circuits in a home, they have also been fighting homebuilders to keep the AFCI requirement from being removed from the state and local codes.

Back in 2002, I traveled around the country in defense of AFCIs, and the battle to keep this important fire prevention technology in state codes is ongoing. Why? The homebuilders don’t want to put them into the homes they build, because they say that the technology is too costly.  It is true that AFCIs cost more than conventional circuit breakers – but to my thinking, an electrical fire in your home is even costlier!  (Note that back when smoke alarms first came out, the homebuilders fought them, too - and look at the lives smoke alarms have saved!) 

Another point to keep in mind is that codes provide a minimum level of safety, and individual homeowners can make the choice to exceed the code if they so choose. If a homeowner can afford to install AFCIs in all of a home’s 15- and 20-amp circuits, then the greater protection may someday save lives and property.

Information for this article was obtained from State Farm Insurance, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission and the National Electrical Manufacturers Association. To learn more about AFCI technology, visit the following websites: http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/pubs/afci.html ,   http://www.afcisafety.org/.

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