How and why does the ACCC launch a hot water bottle blitz?
ACCC launches hot water bottle blitz July 21, 2009 – 2:14PM Hot water bottles may be a source of warmth and comfort in winter but they’ve put at least 85 people in hospital with burns over the past three years. The injury toll has prompted the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission to mount a nationwide blitz on faulty hot water bottles and retailers selling them. Hot water bottles have already caused 11 severe burn cases in NSW this winter alone. Agents will be on the lookout over the coming weeks for bottles that are too thin, too big, have weak seams or are prone to leaking. All bottles sold must meet mandatory product safety standards, with both manufacturers and retailers facing hefty fines. “It is alarming to find children and elderly people severely burnt and to find some retailers selling illegal hot water bottles,” ACCC chairman Graeme Samuel said.
Steve Fielding, the climate sceptic senator who holds the key to an emissions trading scheme in Australia, hopes to meet with Nobel prize winning environmental campaigner Al Gore. The former US vice-president was in Melbourne on Monday to launch non-government climate action group Safe Climate Australia. Mr Gore, who won a Nobel peace prize in 2007 for his environmental activism, said the “inconvenient truth” of rising temperatures, climate refugees and bushfires required strong leadership. “We should respond not only to the danger but also to the opportunity,” he told a breakfast meeting. Among the audience was climate sceptic crossbench Senator Fielding, who approached Mr Gore to ask for a one-on-one meeting. “(Mr Gore) said ‘look, the schedule’s tight but hopefully we can work something out’,” a spokesman for the Family First senator told AAP. “Al Gore’s very aware that Steve has a crucial vote in the Senate.” A third party was organising a possible meeting time, a spokesman for Sen
