MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

“Fire-safe” cigarettes mandatory in the EU as of 2011

As of 2011 all cigarettes sold in the European Union will have to be self-extinguishing in a bid to combat thousands of fire-related deaths and injuries. EC officials said a meeting of experts from all 27 EU member states was expected to endorse proposals by Consumer Protection Commissioner Meglena Kuneva.

Ms Kuneva believes the cigarettes, which stop burning automatically after a few seconds if not puffed, due to small gaps in the cigarette paper which cuts the circulation of oxygen, can hugely reduce the number of deaths from fires in the EU. "Once she gets their approval, which is expected following talks and negotiations over the past number of months, she will now be able to start implementing her plan" one official at the EU executive said last week. Data from 14 of the EU 27 countries shows that over 2,000 deaths a year are caused by cigarette-related fires, with thousands more people injured and tens of millions of Euro worth of damage caused. Commission officials have been working on developing an EU-wide standard for the cigarettes, similar to one in the United States and Canada. Canada introduced legislation in 2005 and a number of US states have followed suit including New York, New Jersey and California, while Australia said it intends to also bring in laws for fire-safe cigarettes. Previously tobacco firms said chemical additives required for fire-safe cigarettes would cause more damage to smokers and complained that smokers would not like the new taste. But a spokesman for Philip Morris, maker of top-selling Marlboro and other brands said his company backed the move in principle.