The Federal Government is looking at ways of forcing tobacco companies to make Cigarettes less likely to start fires once they are thrown away.
The Federal Government is looking at ways of forcing tobacco companies to make Cigarettes less likely to start fires once they are thrown away.
A meeting of State Emergency Ministers and the federal Attorney-General today endorsed a push for fire-safe Cigarettes to be compulsory by next year.
The meeting was told about 70 deaths a year in Australia are caused when cigarette butts start fires.
Attorney-General Robert McClelland says the Government is considering amending the Trade Practices Act to make discarded Cigarettes safer.
"Given that there are quite clearly existing techniques that have been implemented overseas, we expect nothing less than those same techniques and manufacturing systems be implemented in Australia," he said.
"The timetable we've asked Treasury to work towards is early 2009."