Ban urged for toylike novelties

The cartoonish plastic frog with bulging eyes could be a children’s toy -- but for the torch-like flame that bursts from the novelty lighter’s head.

“They look like something you would get in a McDonald’s Happy Meal,” said John Dean, president of the National Assn. of State Fire Marshals. Dean’s group is pushing to ban novelty lighters. In California, Washington and Arkansas, local ordinances have been passed to keep the lighters off store shelves.

Novelty lighters can look like tiny skateboards, cellphones, animals, even butterflies. Some light up or make noises, including the tiny green frog that emits a “ribbit” sound when its flame is ignited.

Distributors of the devices argue that they’re marketed for adults and that it’s up to parents to watch their children.

“Kitchen knives and a lot of the other dangerous items out there that could harm children do not have the safety features that our lighters do,” said John Gibson, owner of San Luis Obispo-based John Gibson Enterprises Inc., which distributes novelty lighters.