DENPASAR

About 80 percent of former 3kg gas bottle users have stopped buying them and switched to kerosene or charcoal fuelled cooking after a spate of explosions in faulty containers.

The figures were released by the consumer protection foundation following a survey of Bali users.

Most users of 3kg gas bottles are poorer families who cannot afford the more expensive 15kg cylinders in which most LPG is supplied for domestic use.

Bali consumer protection foundation chairman Putu Armaya said many users of the 3kg bottles did not know how to spot a fake bottle from an original.

He said the supplier, Pertamina, should withdraw the 3kg bottles and come up with a failsafe alternative.