Scotland: house fires up since smoking ban
Tuesday, September 15, 2009 The Scottish Daily Mail reports that "The number of people killed in house fires caused by smokers has risen dramatically since smoking was banned in public places. New figures show that 20 Scots died in accidental house fires started by smoking materials such as rogue cigarettes and lighted matches in 2007, double the toll for the previous year. That accounts for half of all accidental house fire deaths in Scotland, which rose from 35 to 40 over the same period."
The report continues:
"The grim rise bears out fears that more people are now drinking at home due to the smoking ban implemented in March 2006 and recent moves to end cheap alcohol offers in pubs and bars. The ban was hailed as a step forward for health but at the time critics warned it would lead to an increase in house fires as well as costing jobs and infringing human rights."
The Mail rang me yesterday for a comment. They have quoted me as follows:
"I am saddened but not surprised at these figures – they show the law of unintended consequences that always accompany such prohibitions. We have always argued that the safest place to smoke tobacco is a well-ventilated bar or restaurant and that instituting a complete ban would inevitably cause problems.
"We would hope that MSPs would review the ban in light of these deaths. However, it is more likely that the health fanatics will use this as anexcuse to crack down on smoking in the home. That would be almost impossible to enforce and amount to a gross infringement of civil liberties."
It would be interesting to know what the figures are for England and Wales where the population is ten times the size.
Reader Comments (12)
The majority of house fires are caused by electrical faults and most deaths in house fires are because of no smoke alarms/smoke alarms not working, and people cooking and smoking when having drunk too much.
"FIRE brigade chiefs have thrown their weight behind a campaign to introduce "fire safe" cigarettes.
Nationalist MSP Stewart Maxwell wants Scotland to become the first country in Europe to introduce the cigarettes – which go out quickly if unattended – by law.
The former minister has lodged a motion in parliament which has won letters of support from all eight fire and rescue services in Scotland"
I'm puzzled. I spent a while, a year or so ago, trying to start fires with cigarette butts. I was always unsuccessful.
The culmination came when I poured some petrol into a bowl, lit a cigarette (a roll-up) and tossed it into the petrol. The petrol did NOT ignite in the expected ball of fire. I tried the same again 5 or 6 times with the same result.
Anyone else tried this? Maybe Marlboros burn at a higher temperature?
My preliminary conclusion was that it's a lot more difficult than people think to start fires with cigarettes.
idlex
Well something very peculiar must have happened.
The Alliance For Consumer Fire Safety In Europe
Position Paper on Reduced Ignition Propensity (RIP) Cigarettes
"The report also made it clear that in their tests it was not possible to set fire to furniture bought on the UK market with either cigarettes or matches, because by law it must resist ignition from both sources."
"In summary, cigarette-initiated fires would no doubt be reduced by the introduction
of RIP cigarettes either by mandatory or voluntary means and this is to be welcomed.
However, the contribution of RIP cigarettes to the reduction of European fire deaths
and injuries in the home would be less significant in the context of the overall domestic fire safety problem because cigarettes are not the ignition source in most domestic
killer fires today."
How many fires are started because people have left candles unattended after having too much to drink?
I think that Simon's response to the Scottish Daily Mail was about as good as could possibly be expected. The Mail specifically stated that the house fires it refers to were caused by 'tobacco materials' and 'matches'. It also states that, in addition, there were also other causes. Simon was right to concentrate his comment on the 'tobacco' aspect.
Of course, there is no certainty that the 'hidden' cause of these 'tobacco material' fires was not a result of getting drunk at home and then dropping a lit cigarette into a waste paper bin - I have seen such ignition occur several times in my local's cigarette-end-disposal-facility (!) outside the pub.
The report seems to suggest that about 20 people died in these 'tobacco materials' fires. How many deaths have been proved to have occurred due to second hand smoke? Did I hear you say none?
Is this a precursor for the spin doctors to pull off another nice little earner I wonder.
Will the increase of fires in the home be followed by an announcement by insurnce companies that house insurance premiums will have to be increased if people smoke in the home!
Thats the way it usually goes isnt it, a casual announcement in some paper and a few months later, after working on the hysterics in society, people are willingly paying extra premiums for fires that will never happen.
It was announced today on the radio that domestic violence has increased by 15% since the recession.
Now I wonder what they'll make of that one.
Maybe the spinners and accountants are working out right now what profits can be made there.
But I guess its more likely they'll ignore that one when they figure that there's no profit to be made in either maiming or possible death.
Its much more likely that the little people will be left to cope with that one themselves.
As far as I'm aware Idlex, it's extremely unlikely that petrol will ignite from a cigarette end, normally it will just extinguish it. It's the fumes that are the most volatile. Even a bullet fired into a petrol tank will not ignite it, as they do in films. Not sure that information will ever come in handy for you though!
"Fire Safe" cigarettes?! That's a great idea, introduce even more chemicals into cigarettes to poison smokers even more. We all know that if you make a cigarette from the best quality, purest tobacco (not the vile, mass-produced stuff) and a quality rolling paper, that cigarette will try its hardest to go out on you whenever you take your attention away from it. It's only the cigarette companies dipping their paper in salt petre (potassium nitrate) that makes ready-rolled cigarettes burn as easily (and as hot) as they do.
JD.
I remember,probably more than 25 years ago, seeing a newspaper report on research (whose I don't recall) which indicated that handrolled cigarettes released fewer harmful chemicals than the manufactured variety, I also remember, from that same generation, an old neighbour of mine who smoked roll-ups, who said that 'tailor-mades', made him cough. I wondered what happened to that research. And I wonder whether there would be any funding available for a follow-up.
P.S. The reported reason for the reduced release of harmful chemicals was that the roll-ups burned at a lower temperature.
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