Safety group putting pressure on ministers over home fatalities

Date: 20/09/01

By Peter Chapman

EU MINISTERS will be urged next week to set up a European consumer safety agency in a bid to reduce the number of deaths and injuries resulting from accidents in homes.

The European Consumer Safety Association (ECSA) will warn consumer ministers that while the European Commission has responsibly tackled work and road safety issues, it has done little to address the risks faced by people in their homes or in leisure activities.

Wim Rogmans, a director of the association, said a dedicated body such as the food safety agency was crucial. Key priorities include an improvement in gathering and sharing of key information, particularly accident data; increased research grants; safety-conscious regulations and standards, with better enforcement and safety awareness campaigns.

Hotel fire safety rules provide a prime example of poor implementation of EU-level policy. The Commission launched non-binding safety levels for hotels in 1986, but random tests have highlighted that serious breaches still occur. For example, emergency exits were found locked in some cases.

Such shortfalls are believed to have contributed to the Volendam tragedy in the Netherlands, where 13 young people were killed at a party on 31 December 2000. Data set to be unveiled at the 27 September ministerial meeting shows that home and leisure accidents are 14 times more likely than workplace deaths, double the number of road deaths and cost EU member states €230 billion a year.

Finland tops the chart of EU countries with the worst record of fatalities resulting from home and leisure accidents with 52.52 deaths per 100,000 per year, followed by France (43.18). The safest countries are the UK (18.36) and the Netherlands (18.87).

The performance of would-be EU members is far worse: Estonia had 176.77 deaths per 100,000, followed by Lithuania (167.8) and Latvia (91.57).

EU ministers will be urged to set up a European consumer safety agency in a bid to reduce the number of deaths and injuries resulting from accidents in homes.