OK, Riverhead. Now is the time to make your voices heard.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission has finally taken the first steps toward regulating or possibly even banning the liquid ethanol fuel products like the one that nearly killed Michael Hubbard last May.
Two people have died and 86 others were injured by these bombs-in-a-bottle as of Sept. 30, 2011. More than half of the people injured required hospitalization.
As everyone in our community by now knows, Michael Hubbard remains hospitalized. He suffered brain damage when organ failure resulting from the very severe burns he suffered May 28 caused him to go into cardiac arrest on June 9. His brain was deprived of oxygen and blood for 13 minutes. Poor Michael actually died that day at Stony Brook, but determined doctors and modern medicine brought him back. He's making slow and steady progress thanks to intensive therapy at Blythedale Children's Hospital in Westchester. Our whole community has been hoping and praying along with Michael's family for a complete recovery.
Unfortunately — you might say typically — the federal consumer protection agency's proposed rulemaking has gone unnoticed by the media. It was a mere blip in the federal register on Dec. 27. I happened to stumble onto it today.
There are only 13 days left to submit comments to regulators telling them why these "candles" should be permanently banned from sale in the United States.
Please let your voice be heard.
If you and I don't speak out in favor of a ban, the only points of view the commission will hear will be those made by industry representatives. We owe it to Michael to speak out on his behalf.
Thanks to "Fireburners," Michael can't speak for himself.
Click here to submit your comment via the federal register's website.
If you'd prefer, you can send your comments by mail to: Office of the Secretary, Consumer Product Safety Commission, Room 820, 4330 East West Highway, Bethesda, MD 20814; telephone (301) 504-7923.
It angers me how slowly government moves on something that is so clearly a matter of public safety and health. After the present comment period is over, the agency will consider comments and devise a proposed rule. The publication process, including another 60-day comment period, will begin anew. Even if the CPSC issues a proposed rule immediately, it won't take effect until at least May — a whole year after the tragedy that robbed Michael and his family of life as they knew it.
Remember, too, the federal consumer protection agency wasn't going to do anything at all about this dangerous product. The CPSC said in a new release shortly after the Hubbard tragedy it wasn't even going to issue a voluntary recall of the product! Regulators were inexplicably content to urge consumers to "exercise caution" when using these products!
It was only after media attention (here on RiverheadLOCAL and in a New York Times article our coverage helped inspire) and the ensuing outcry by elected officials — Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, Rep. Tim Bishop, State Sen. Ken LaValle, Assemblyman Dan Losquadro and County Legislator Ed Romaine — that the Consumer Product Commission decided to act, reversing its earlier decision and issuing a nationwide recall of the liquid fuel firepots.
Clearly, the people charged with protecting consumers in the USA need watching and prodding from the people they're supposed to protect. That's where you come in.
Please speak out today.
Below is a sample letter you can use, if you'd like, to tell the Consumer Product Safety Commission to ban the sale of these products in the U.S. You can copy and paste it into the comment form on the federal register website.
Think of it as a Valentine to Michael.
It will take you all of two minutes and it may well help prevent other people from being hurt or killed by these things.
Message to the Consumer Product Safety Commission:
Please act swiftly to ban the sale of gel fuel and gel fuel firepots in the United States.
Gel fuel is highly flammable, combustible and extremely dangerous. It is not appropriate for use in consumer decorative lighting, as is evidenced by two fatalities and injuries to 86 people resulting from flash fires and explosions involving these products.
One of those injured was a boy from my community, a 14-year-old honor student who was helping his mother set up for a family backyard party over Memorial Day weekend in 2011. He suffered third-degree burns over 40 percent of his body when the Napa Home and Garden "Fireburners" ceramic gel fuel firepot exploded, slathering him with flaming gel. His burns caused major organ failure, which led to cardiac arrest that resulted in severe brain damage. He remains hospitalized and his prognosis is uncertain.
These products must never be placed on retail store shelves again.
Suffolk County, New York passed "Michael's Law" last year. The legislation bans the sale of these products in our county.
I am writing to urge you to afford consumers across America the same protection from this volatile and dangerous substance.
Please ban the retail sale of liquid gel fuels and firepots.
Sincerely,