100s of blaze deaths linked to skin creams
Top firefighter issues warning
HUNDREDS of deaths may be linked to paraffin-based skin creams, a top firefighter has warned.
Chris Bell from West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service said: “The creams are safe to use in their own right but if that product soaks into materials and a person is exposed to a naked flame or some other heat source, they can go up.”
The creams are often used to treat dry skin conditions, including eczema.
Bell added: “Hundreds of thousands of people use paraffin-based skin products.
“We’re not sure how many fire deaths might have occurred but it could be into the hundreds.
“We fear there are many that have gone unreported.”
Last year, 37 deaths dating back to 2010 were linked to paraffin-based creams and there are thought to have been eight more since then.
Carol Hoe, whose husband Philip, 60, died after using such a cream, has backed the warning.
Philip died after suffering 90 per cent burns to his body after sneaking out for a cigarette from his hospital ward, where he was being treated for psoriasis.
Carol said: “I wouldn’t want anybody to go through what we went through that night, it was horrific.”
Bell’s comments come after a BBC investigation found only seven of 38 products containing paraffin that are licensed in the UK carry warnings on their packaging.
E45 cream is one of the few to carry a warning after the death of Christopher Holyoake, 63, from Leicester, in 2015. His bedding was covered in flammable residue when his lighter came into contact.
Carol, 67, from Bircotes, Yorkshire, added: “These manufacturers have to put a warning on these creams, especially for people who smoke.”