if anyone has a few spare minutes to send the following ? - it makes for some very interesting anoraky reading aswell! please try to highlight the campaign and get support wherever you can
dave bev
Rt Hon Alistair Darling MP
Secretary of State for Trade and Industry
1 Victoria Street
London SW1H 0ET
XX XXXX 2006
Dear Secretary of State
RE: Reduced Ignition Propensity Cigarettes
The vast majority of fires causing fatalities and injuries are caused by manufactured cigarettes. Victims are more likely to be from low income households and include non-smokers, smokers, children as well as adults, and fire-fighters. In 2003, 123 people died in smoking-related fires. There were a further 1,416 non-fatal injuries as a result of such fires. With 4,159 fires in the home in 2003 caused by smokers’ materials, cigarette fires also cause significant economic harm.
Reduction in smoking-related fires would therefore help to reduce social exclusion and health inequalities, one of the Government’s overall objectives, as well as helping the Communities and Local Government Department meet its Public Service Agreement Target of reducing the number of accidental fire-related deaths in the home by 20% by 2010. A significant proportion of the deaths, injuries and destruction of property could be prevented through the introduction of a fire safety standard for cigarettes which would result in cigarettes that were self-extinguishing, i.e. would go out when not actively puffed, or alter the smouldering characteristics of the cigarette making a fire less likely.
The reason why this is relevant to the DTI is that standards for Reduced Ignition Propensity Cigarettes could be introduced in the EU under the General Product Safety Directive, and there is support from the European Commission for such an initiative. The GPSD is the responsibility of the DTI in the UK. The setting of such standards for cigarettes is due to be discussed at the next meeting of the relevant committee in Brussels on June 13th and 14th when Member States will be asked their opinion about taking such an initiative forward. DTI are the UK representatives on this committee. I understand that the DTI representative on this committee will be making clear that this is not a priority for the UK, despite the clear policy advantages set out above.
Such standards have already been introduced in New York and Canada and are under discussion in other US states and Australia. The Canadian Regulatory Impact Assessment forecasts a reduction in fires by between 34% (scenario 1) and 68% (scenario 2). This is corroborated by initial statistics from the Office of Fire Prevention and Control in New York State which show that 28 people died in 2004 from smoking-related fire deaths. That is down by one-third from the average of 42 smoking-related deaths in each of the three previous years for which reliable statistics are available. A Fire Research Report by ODPM estimated that had cigarettes in the UK conformed to the highest standards on sale in New York in 2003, the number of smoking-related fires would have been reduced by nearly two thirds to 1,615, the number of fatalities to 45, and the number of non-fatal casualties to 530.
I would urge you most strongly to ensure that the DTI representative at the GPSD committee in June gives the development of standards for Reduced Ignition Propensity cigarettes the UK Government’s support. I am copying this letter to the Rt Hon Ruth Kelly MP, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, Caroline Flint MP, Minister of State for Public Health and the Rt Hon Gordon Brown, Chancellor of the Exchequer.
Yours sincerely,
http://www.odpm.gov.uk/stellent/groups/odpm_fire/documents/page/odpm_fire_035909.pdf.
New York General Law. Ch 284. s.156-c. Cigarette Fire Safety Act, 2000. Available at:
http://www.dos.state.ny.us/fire/amendedcigaretterule.htm . See also:
http://www.dos.state.ny.us/fire/regulations.html#cigarette ASTM International is a U.S. based organisation that develops consensus testing methods. See:
www.astm.org See
http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/hecs-sesc/tobacco/legislation/rip.html http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/hl-vs/pubs/tobac-tabac/rias-reir/index_e.html http://www.odpm.gov.uk/index.asp?id=1163267
