Skin creams with paraffin

lam, I still think that non-smokers may be at risk too!

Maybe so Ginny 42, but also, maybe once smokers are aware of the increased risk, they'll be a bit more careful.

In severe cases causing great discomfort the patient will continue using the creams, but need to be extra vigilant near flames and cigarettes. Perhaps the pharmaceutical companies will come up with an alternative.

When skin conditions like psoriasis are at their worst, layers of steroid and emollient creams are needed, often followed by bandaging. The idea that people would stop using the creams because of the possibility of fire seems ridiculous. I agree that bedding needs to be washed on a hot/boiling wash and that not smoking is the obvious response.

Yes, and presumably bedding is a particular risk both because it's likely to be washed less often at any temperature than a t-shirt, and because the whole bed would go up in flames so more likely to cause death. In reading around this story, there was a comment somewhere that it was likely to be under-reported - if the fire wasn't serious & didn't need the fire brigade, it would never be recorded.

If my sleeves caught fire in the kitchen I'd run them under the tap & probably escape with minimal damage! But it's made me think - I'm investigating alternative emollients ;-)

Not only smokers, agreed, but there were more mentions of smoking-related incidents in the reports than of non-smokers. Whenever there are news items about people dying in house fires, most of them seem to be smokers too. The combination of lit cigarettes, bed clothes and sleepy people is already a bad one, adding paraffin residue makes it even more lethal.

Logically it's not only smokers who are at risk. I use a dry skin cream on my arms so presumably my jumpers & long sleeved t-shirts, which are washed at low temperature, are affected. If I need to reach across to the back burner of the gas hob I'm presumably at risk! And think of gardeners lighting bonfires, or users of scented candles.

That's exactly what I thought when I read the news item, elegran. It's not really the skin cream that's the problem. Maybe cigarette packets should have warnings on them: cigarettes can and do cause fires!

It sounds to me as though the most dangerous thing is the cigarette smoking - yet another reason to stop, or never to start.

DH didn't smoke but he had many 'liaisons dangereuses' with wood burners. I shudder at the thought.

Washing at 30 has a lot to answer for , bad for the machine and grey clothes , and now fire risk

I listened to the full article on the radio and the common denominator was cigarette smoking and several of these were in bed. Hundreds of thousands of people have been using these creams for decades and they have made a marked difference to what can be quite miserable skin conditions. I think we should be talking about a sensible risk management approach. It worries me that now a lot of people will stop using their creams.

I was sceptical when I heard the headline on BBC Breakfast but when I heard the article in full, I was dumbfounded. DDH must have got through gallons of E45 in his later years, had I known I would have washed his underwear at a hotter temperature. Apparently the 30 degree wash most of us use for economy/ecological reasons doesn't wash the paraffin residue out completely. One poor man went outside for a smoke, and the wind blew the flame from his lighter onto his clothing. His widow said he suffered 90 burns.

Gosh how scary that is I use a paraffin 50/50 based cream on my feet quite often to keep the skin on my heels soft but I think I will stop using it after reading this report.

Food for thought.

I've just read this as well Ginny. It sounds pretty horrifying if it happens. There certainly needs to be more oublicity about the dangers of these petrolium based creams.