EU to Develop Standards for 'Fire Safer' Cigarette

Source from:  tr.itsmyiq.com Nov 30, 2007 12/03/2007

The EU Commission's Committee of the General Product Safety Directive agreed yesterday to require CEN, the EU's standards making body, to develop a pan-European standard for the production of fire safer cigarettes. Once agreed this standard will be the norm for all cigarettes in EU member states. The agreement was welcomed by the UK government, whose Fire Minister, Parmjit Dhanda, said: "We all know that both the safest and healthiest action is to stop smoking altogether. But the government also has a duty to keep looking for ways to cut the numbers of fires and fire deaths. Dropped or poorly extinguished cigarettes are a major cause of accidental fires – every year they cause hundred of deaths and injuries – so this new standard of cigarettes should provide extra protection to the public. "We estimate that having fire safer cigarettes as standard in the UK could save up to 120 lives per year. Across Europe this could amount to up to 1,000 lives saved and 11,000 injuries avoided. And fire safer cigarettes would also help in the drive to reduce the £90 million per year cost of fire in the UK. "We have been pushing for a long time [for] fire safer cigarettes to be the norm across the European Union and this should now become reality, so this is excellent news. But setting a European standard can be quite a long process, which is why the government is also to consult on fire safer cigarettes being introduced as soon as possible in the UK." Enditem