EU to Require Fire-Safe, Self-Extinguishing Cigarettes by 2011

Source from:  By James G. Neuger Aug. 5 (Bloomberg) 08/07/2008

All cigarettes sold in Europe by 2011 will be required to be ``fire-safe'' brands that automatically go out if not puffed on for a minute, the European Commission said. European standard-setters are working on rules to mandate self-extinguishing cigarettes to prevent accidental fires, following as many as 37 U.S. states and Canada, commission spokesman Ton van Lierop said. Data from 16 European countries show that careless use of cigarettes such as smoking in bed caused 11,000 fires annually between 2005 and 2007, killing 520 people and injuring 1,600. ``We think that by 2011 at the latest, these cigarettes will be on the market,'' Van Lierop told reporters today in Brussels. He challenged contentions by tobacco companies that fireproofing would drive up cigarette prices. The standard method of fireproofing is to wrap a cigarette in additional layers of thickened paper to slow the burning process, leading the cigarette to go out on its own if not smoked for about 60 seconds, the commission said. Cigarette makers chafe at the added regulation. Alison Cooper, a director of Imperial Tobacco Group Plc, told analysts in March that the term ``fire-safe'' is ``misleading'' and asked whether the idea would yield ``a real benefit.'' The European Committee for Standardization has begun work on the technical specifications for the safer cigarettes, after the European Union's 27 governments gave the go-ahead in November, Van Lierop said. Discarded cigarettes are also a leading cause of forest fires, the commission said. To contact the reporter on this story: James G. Neuger in Brussels at jneuger@bloomberg.net Enditem