A European-wide standard for cigarettes which extinguish themselves if left unattended is to be developed, following a meeting last month of an EU Commission safety committee. Although the standard is expected to take several years to complete, the UK government has signalled it will be introducing earlier measures to bring in reduced ignition propensity cigarettes. The move follows a campaign backed by the UK government to bring in the safer burning cigarettes, following reduced fire deaths in Canada, Australia and around half the states in the US. Although fire deaths in the UK are at their lowest since the late 1950s, and between 1995 and 2005 fatal casualties from accidental fires dropped from 481 to 310 deaths, 32% of these were smoking related.
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