HALLOWE’EN COSTUMES
‘Gold star to Sainsbury’s, which has redesigned its range’
It’s been two years since Claudia Winkleman’s daughter Matilda was left with severe burns after her Hallowe’en costume caught fire in a freak accident. And 12 months since we tested some and were shocked to find they caught fire after just four seconds near a naked flame. So, will this year’s costumes be safer? We’ve been in touch with major retailers selling costumes. Disappointingly, since last year most of them have made no changes to the way their costumes are made. All must meet EU standards, but we feel these aren’t thorough enough. Costumes are classified as toys rather than wearable items, which means a rate-of-flame spread of up to 30mm a second is permitted. In January, the British Retail Consortium (BRC) launched a new, more stringent set of regulations for testing for flammability, with a lower maximum rate-of-flame spread of 10mm a second. While voluntary, several retailers have already made sure they comply with these regulations, including Wilko, John Lewis and also Tesco (it has also chosen to remove long floating fabrics from costumes). At the time of writing we are yet to hear from Poundland, TK Maxx and Asda.
Gold star to Sainsbury’s, which has redesigned its entire range with help from independent fire safety officers. They now exceed both EU, BRC and the tougher British Standards regulations. Trading Standards and the British Standards Institution will be formally investigating the issue this Autumn – check goodhousekeeping.co.uk for updates.