National interim ban:

On 16 March 2017, the Minister for Small Business, the Hon Michael McCormack MP, announced an interim ban on the supply of certain decorative alcohol fuelled devices, also known as ethanol burners, throughout Australia.

The interim ban applies to devices designed for domestic use producing a flame using alcohol as fuel, primarily for decorative purpose. The interim ban applies to all tabletop devices and to certain freestanding devices that do not have specified safety features and warnings.

The national interim ban replaces interim bans imposed by the Ministers responsible for the Australian Consumer Law in Western Australia, Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, the ACT, Tasmania and the Northern Territory.

The national interim ban allows the supply of larger freestanding devices that have specified safety features and warnings and continues to ban the supply of all tabletop devices.

Hazards:

Decorative alcohol fuelled devices have caused serious burn injuries to consumers in age from newborn babies to pensioners. Many injuries occur while refuelling the burners as people can unknowingly refuel the burner while it is still burning as it can be hard to see the flame. Injuries include second or third degree burns requiring intensive care, skin grafts, operations, lengthy hospital stays and physiotherapy.

These products have also been associated with a number of house fires. Some cheap decorative alcohol fuelled devices appear to lack safety features for refuelling the device.

BACL Service:

BACL, headquartered in the United Sates, is a global comprehensive international third-party testing and certification service organization. With knowledge of the laws and regulations of various market, BACL can not only offer testing and certification services for finished products including textile and garment, shoes and toys, but also help companies to execute quality control over the whole industry chain from raw material to finished products.