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ELECTRONIC ARTICLE:
Robert J. Hoffman, Solomon Morgenstern, Robert S. Hoffman, and Lewis S. Nelson
Extremely Elevated Relative Risk of Paraffin Lamp Oil Exposures in Orthodox Jewish Children
Pediatrics 2004; 113: e377-e379 [Abstract] [Full text] [PDF]
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[Read P3R] Reducing the Ingestion of Paraffin Oil from Glass Lamps
Frank Egan   (10 April 2004)

Reducing the Ingestion of Paraffin Oil from Glass Lamps 10 April 2004
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Frank Egan,
Sculptor
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Send letter to journal:
Re: Reducing the Ingestion of Paraffin Oil from Glass Lamps

frank{at}jewishlamps.com Frank Egan

The children are drinking the lamp oil via the glass "straw" that many of the manufacturers are using in predominately glass lamps.

The liability here lies, in part, with the end user. The manufacturers clearly list on their bottles that this is a harmful substance, if ingested, and they further list some antidotal remedies in case of ingestion.

Hopefully, all manufacturers of this type of lighting device also warn the end user to keep this device away from children and pets.

The nexus of the ingestion problem lies with the "straw", a device that glass lamp manufacturers use to hold the wick and support it in the glass bulb. This is nothing more that a cosmetic device to keep the wick straight inside the bulb. Elimination of the glass "straw" would appear to reduce the temptation of a small child from drinking from it. From their earliest age the children are taught to drink from a straw and reason would assume that their are no boundaries from which to drink from.

The manufacturers of these devices can easily forgo the straw by knotting the wick at the top of the lamp. There is no adjustment needed for a fiberglass wick as the fiberglass wick does not burn as would a cotton wick. It would not look as pretty but it would nearly eliminate the the sickness, death and accompanying negative PR that has resulted in this report.

As an artist, I can tell you that this is a studied approach and I am well aware of the liabilities of MY work.

Frank Egan http://www.jewishlamps.com http://www.eganbronze.com frank@jewishlamps.com