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 THE GOVERNMENT has announced that it strongly supports an agreement across the European Union (EU) to a set of standards that will enable fire-safe cigarettes to be manu-factured. Dropped or poorly extinguished cigarettes are a major cause of accidental fires but fire-safe cigarettes, with their reduced or lower-ignition propensity, go out under the same conditions.
Although fire deaths are at their lowest level since the late 1950s, 32% of fatal fires in the UK between 1995 and 2005 were smoking-related, and the Government wants to further reduce this figure. Fire Minister Parmjit Dhanda welcomed the move, saying that up to 120 lives a year could be saved and that the cost of UK fires could reduce by as much as £90m per year.
Once a pan-European standard for the production of fire-safe cigarettes is agreed, the standard will become the norm for all cigarettes in EU member states. Canada, Australia and some 20-plus states of the USA have already introduced fire-safe cigarettes, with positive results.
The UK Government will shortly be consulting on the introduction of an early standard for the UK, based on the USA model.
More information on fire-safe cigarettes is available from: www.firesafercigarettes.org.uk/
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