A European-wide standard for cigarettes which extinguish themselves if left unattended is to be developed, following a meeting last month of an EU Commission safety committee.
Although the standard is expected to take several years to complete, the UK government has signalled it will be introducing earlier measures to bring in reduced ignition propensity cigarettes.
The move follows a campaign backed by the UK government to bring in the safer burning cigarettes, following reduced fire deaths in Canada, Australia and around half the states in the US. Although fire deaths in the UK are at their lowest since the late 1950s, and between 1995 and 2005 fatal casualties from accidental fires dropped from 481 to 310 deaths, 32% of these were smoking related.
“The decision in Europe today is a major step forward towards reducing the unnecessary loss of life from fire,” said the chief fire and rescue adviser, Sir Ken Knight, speaking at the European Commission. “It is the most vulnerable in society who die in fire, and 30% of all fire deaths in the home in the UK are caused by smoking materials.”
Cigarettes burn at hundreds of degrees Celsius and, as currently manufactured, they will usually continue burning down to the filter – whether they are being smoked or not. A dropped or poorly extinguished cigarette can start a devastating fire, and smoking materials (predominantly cigarettes) are the single biggest cause of both fires and fire deaths.
Fire safer cigarettes are produced differently. They are made of bands of thicker paper placed down the length of the cigarette, which act as ‘barriers’ to extinguish it if it’s not being smoked. The cigarettes are also known and Reduced or Lower Ignition Propensity cigarettes.
Once agreed, the European standard will become the norm throughout the European Union.
