New 'fire-safe' cigarettes will put themselves out
Old-style brands will be prohibited by 2009 in a bid to prevent absurd deaths
Cigarettes that stop burning within two minutes of being thrown away are to substitute customary brands in an attempt to reduce the number of accidents from fires started by smouldering cigarette butts.
The European Commission is to prohibit traditional cigarettes by 2009-10, enforcing smokers to buy ’fire-safe’ cigs that need permanent drags to have them alight.
Arlene McCarthy, a British Labour member of the European Parliament and chair of its consumer protection committee, considers it to be very good news. It can save lives. At the moment some people return home, have had some drinks, fall asleep on the sofa with a cigarette in their hand, it falls on to flammable material and inflames. Fire-safe cigarettes significantly reduce the risk of that possible variant.
Aproximately 2,000 people across Europe are killed annually in house fires provoked by cigarettes and more than 7,500 injured. Introducing a safety standard for any production usually takes two or three years, but the commission supposes to introduce fire-safe cigarettes in reduced terms. It is considered that Canada and Australia will pass a similar law.
The commission has neglected claims from the tobacco industry that the new types of cigarettes will have little influence on fire-related deaths and injuries and that they will be more toxic to smokers. Events from North America suggests that changing the composition of cigs will cause their price’s increasing - 2p or 3p on a packet of 20.
