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
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