On November 29, 2007, the committee of the General Product Safety Directive (GPSD), which is made up of national representatives of the EU Member States, met and agreed to mandate CEN, the EU’s standards making body, to develop a pan-European standard for production of fire-safer cigarettes. Once agreed, this standard will be the norm for all cigarettes produced in EU member states. Canada and Australia, as well as 22 States in the USA, have introduced fire-safer cigarettes. Data from New York State, for example, has shown that accidental fire deaths have fallen since the introduction of this new standard.

The campaign to introduce this standard in the EU was lead by the EU RIP Alliance, of which the Smoke Free Partnership forms part. It is clear that the efforts of the public health and NGO communities at national and European level have contributed significantly to ensuring national support within the Committee of the General Product Safety Directive for the introduction of reduced-ignition propensity, or fire-safer, cigarettes.

During the press event, MEP Arlene McCarthy (who has been the champion for this campaign in the European Parliament) stressed that this victory “would not have been possible without the help of the campaigners and all the organisations that signed up to the EU RIP Alliance”.

Speaking at the European Commission, the UK Government’s Chief Fire and Rescue Adviser Sir Ken Knight said:

"The decision in Europe today is a major step forward towards reducing the unnecessary loss of life from fire. It is the most vulnerable in society who die in fire, and 30% of all fire deaths in the home in the UK are caused by smoking materials. I look forward to playing an active part with European colleagues to produce a new standard for fire-safer cigarettes through the European standards body (CEN) to reduce the risk of fire across the EU."

Next steps in the campaign

The adoption of the decision (which will be official in the spring of 2008) is a huge success. However, there is more work to be done. Monitoring and ensuring that CEN, the EU standardisation body, gives appropriate consideration to the ASTM E2187-04 standard (in its most recent form and in accordance with the latest and most stringent version) at international level remains vitally important.