Turkey stuffed?
Turkey has opposed tobacco harm reduction since day one, and is now dealing with an explosion of cigarette-related house fires. Figures from the Istanbul Fire Department shows that cigarettes were to blame for the increase in house fires throughout the first quarter of 2021. The actions of the UK show that encouraging smokers to switch to vaping drastically decreases the risk of house fires.
Nearly 3000 incidents took place in Istanbul from January to March according to the Istanbul Fire Department. The report it has produced says that 39.4% of these were due to carelessly discarded cigarettes that were still lit.
Turkish experts have stated that residents should stop smoking in bed or while sitting on sofas, but have refused to speak out about switching to vaping to help mitigate the potential for hazards.
While it’s not necessarily illegal to vape in Turkey, the country has made the hurdles extremely steep to choose to switch. The country has banned the importation and sale of devices and E-Liquids, acting on the claim that it needed to curb the expanding home market in harm reduction.
The London Fire Brigade realised the danger posed by burning cigarettes causing house fires, which could be heavily reduced is everyone switched to vaping, and become a dedicated advocate for e-cigarettes back in 2018.
It studied figures over a five-year period and found that London experienced around 22 fires a week which were linked to burning tobacco, 300 times the rate of fires caused by improperly charged or damaged vaping devices. This concludes that smoking had caused nearly 6000 fires in London, leading to over 400 injuries and around 80 deaths.