LPG car explodes as driver lights cigarette

A  motorist had a miraculous escape when his LPG-powered car exploded in a fireball as he lit a cigarette.

Peter Tidbury had just filled his Peugeot 607 with 40 litres of gas at a service station and was driving at around 30mph. He could smell gas in the car and passed it off as remnants from the petrol station but it was in fact a cloud of fuel in the cabin. Mr Tidbury decided to smoke a cigarette and the second he ignited the lighter, its flame sparked a fireball.

The windows were blown out and the bonnet and boot were thrown open by the force of the blast. Nearby householders were evacuated for fear of a further explosion and the windscreen was discovered 50 feet away. His clothes melted on him and firefighters believe he survived serious injury or death because the seats took the force of the explosion.

He had bought the car privately for £5,000 three weeks earlier and two garage checks gave it a clean bill of health before he got behind the wheel. Mr Tidbury, 55, an energy-saving company manager, who needed hospital treatment for minor flash burns, said: "It just wasn't my day to die."

Mr Tidbury, a widower from south-east London, drove to northern England last weekend to visiting his daughter and friends. After a website to locate a filling station selling LPG, he filled up in Monk Bretton, Barnsley, South Yorkshire. He said: "I was told you get a slight smell of gas when you fill up so thought nothing of it and wound the window down to freshen the air and put it back up again. I fancied a fag so wound the window down again slightly and then lit up. I was doing about 30mph and as I lit the cigarette there was an almighty explosion.

"The windows went out, the bonnet went up and the boot went up just as you see in the Hollywood movies. I was belted in and braked sharply. I can't remember this but I was told that I was directing traffic around the car whilst my suit jacket was still smoking. The fireball singed me on my face, hands and legs and melted my jacket lining and some of my shirt. I looked as if a firework had exploded in my face."

It is thought a leak in the pipe from the filler to the fuel tank allowed gas to seep into the car which ignited when he lit up. He added: "When I walked past that car to get in the ambulance I thought that was not survivable. For me it is miraculous." Mr Tidbury has ruled out buying another LPG car and intends to quit smoking.

Fire station watch manager Neil McQuillan said: "The car looked like a hand grenade had gone off in it. How anyone can survive an explosion like that when the car is severely damaged is remarkable really."

Source: The Telegraph, 31 October 2008
Link: http://tiny.cc/cX54U

Charities call on the public to fight England’s biggest killer

Leading charities are calling on patients in England to take part in a public survey, launched today, to ensure the Government puts cardio and vascular disease at the top of future health strategy. 

The Cardio & Vascular Coalition (CVC), a group of 36 voluntary organisations, is urging people who suffer from cardio and vascular disease, their relatives, or carers to have their say about the future of treatment and care. Action on Smoking & Health is a member of the CVC, whose interests span all heart and circulatory diseases (including heart disease and stroke), as well as the related conditions of kidney disease and diabetes.

Heart and circulatory diseases, which include heart disease and stroke, are the leading cause of death in England, causing more than 167,000 deaths every year. Closely related conditions affect the lives of millions of people. More than 4% of adults in England have diabetes and over 8% of people are affected by chronic kidney disease.

Betty McBride, Chair of the CVC, said: “We want to hear what really matters to people living with cardio vascular disease, and their loved ones. If we are to improve treatment and care, we must listen and learn from people with first hand experience.”

The National Service Framework for Coronary Heart Disease comes to an end in 2009/10 and there is currently no strategy to replace it. The framework has been crucial in providing a focus for the health service in reducing death and disability caused by cardio and vascular disease.

Betty McBride said: “The Government cannot take a holiday from fighting cardio and vascular disease. Heart health has improved over the last decade, but it still kills more people than any other disease. Stroke, diabetes and kidney disease are also killer diseases which place an enormous burden on the country’s health. We must have a new strategy that recognises the links between these conditions, otherwise the progress that’s been made will evaporate.”

Source:  BHF Press Release, 03 November 2008
Link: http://www.nursinginpractice.com/article/14331/www.consultationfinder.com/cvc

UAE: Tobacco control law may come into force soon

The federal tobacco control law is expected to be implemented by the end of the year once the Federal National Council (FNC) holds deliberations on various aspects of the legislation that have been delayed by the summer holidays and Ramadan.

The draft law has seen several delays since the Ministry of Health announced its intention to pass a tobacco control law for the UAE in keeping with the country's commitment to the World Health Organisation (WHO) Framework Convention of Tobacco Control. Officials had initially expected the law to come out at the end of 2006.

Dr Wedad Al Maidoor, head of the National Tobacco Control Committee, told Gulf News the draft law has been slotted for FNC debates on November 11. The next step is to submit it to the Cabinet for discussion before ratification by the UAE President. "The federal tobacco [draft] law is ready but we will not have the FNC meeting till November. By the end of the year, God willing, it will come out," she said. "It needs to come out as soon as possible in view of the trend of availability and sale of tobacco products," she said, adding that the draft law would help unify tobacco-control policies in the UAE.

Dubai has implemented several tobacco-control initiatives, outlawing smoking in enclosed public spaces and banned sale of tobacco products to those under the age of 20. The emirate and Abu Dhabi are also regulating shisha cafes. Smoking in malls and shisha cafes are banned in Sharjah, while other emirates have banned or limited smoking in some way. The draft law will not ban shisha cafes as originally intended, but will instead limit their operation. It proposes that shisha cafes be operated on the ground floor outdoors but bans any shisha cafe from operating in residential buildings.

Dr Wedad said the ministry's anti-smoking clinics have been receiving at least seven cases each day compared to three or four during the previous Ramadan. "The trend continues. Ramadan is the best time to quit because people have to go without smoking for more than 12 hours anyway," she said. She added that the ministry would be conducting a study on the prevalence of tobacco use in the UAE in October to determine whether tobacco control efforts in the country have achieved the desired impact. She also said it was too soon to tell if the number of smokers had declined.

About 27 per cent of men and 2.4 per cent of women in the UAE use tobacco products like shisha and midwakh, while 25.2 and 3.0 per cent respectively smoke cigarettes, according to figures from the WHO.

Source: Zawya.com, 31 October 2008
Link: http://tiny.cc/zuwXZ

Judge cuts tobacco smuggler fine because of 'credit crisis'

Seamus Murphy, 37, owed £39,988 in evaded tobacco duty after he was caught smuggling 10,000 cigarettes and 350kg of counterfeit tobacco. He received a suspended prison sentence in February and appeared at Plymouth Crown Court on Thursday for confiscation proceedings. The court heard Murphy had previously had about £92,000 equity in his home in Plymouth.

However this had "reduced significantly" during the past year due to the drop in house prices and Murphy taking out a pounds 46,000 loan on the property to fund debts in his tan salon business. Jo Martin, prosecuting on behalf of Revenue and Customs, said after the hearing: "It is going to happen a lot in these sorts of compensation cases." She said that if the credit crisis continued, it could potentially cost the criminal justice system millions of pounds in unpaid compensation. She added that Revenue and Customs still have six years during which it can claim further compensation from Murphy. If his house gains value within that time, it can reapply for payment through the courts.

In September 2007, Murphy's house was estimated to be worth more than £320,000, but August valuations placed it between £230,000 and £295,000. The court heard Murphy was left in negative equity. If the house was now sold, the proceeds would go to those that Murphy had loans with. The Taxpayer's Alliance criticised the eight months period between the sentencing of Murphy and the confiscation proceedings, and urged courts to speed up processing times to try to avoid houses becoming devalued.

Source: The Telegraph, 31 October 2008
Link: http://tiny.cc/4pba6