Picture credit: LK 03 loy krathong yi peng san sai by Takeaway - Own work. CC-BY-SA 3.0

A year after a Chinese lantern started ‘the largest fire’ that the West Midlands had ever seen, a code of practice has been launched to ‘minimise risk’ associated with their sale.

The fire at the Smethwick site of plastic recycling company J&A Young (known as Jayplas) began last summer (30 June 2013) after a Chinese lantern landed on baled material and ignited a fire involving more than 100,000 tonnes of plastic. The blaze was so fierce that 11 firefighters needed treatment for injuries, with three being taken to hospital. It is estimated that the fire cost Jayplas around £6 million.

In a bid to prevent incidents like this from recurring, the Trading Standards Institute (TSI) has now published a new code of practice regarding Chinese lanterns (also known as sky lanterns) for ‘manufacturers, importers and retailers who have a responsibility to place safe products on the [UK] market’.

Developed following discussions between government and industryhosted by the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra), the ‘Industry Code of Practice – Sky Lanterns’ also seeks to ‘help market surveillance authorities recognise the necessary safety checks, the type of warnings and instructions that need to accompany the product, and help ensure the responsible sale and safe use of sky lanterns’.

Identifying that lanterns can give rise to a number of safety concerns (including: risks to livestock and animal health (including marine animals); fire risk and damage to crops and property; littering on land and at sea; and risks to aviation), the code aims to mitigate the risks from sky lanterns by promoting good practice in their design, manufacture and use.

It is structured in four parts:

1. Design and manufacture (including details of packaging and labelling, construction and biodegradability);
2. Safety checks (including suggested visual and performance checks);
3. Warnings and instructions for use (including recommended sizes of fire warnings); and
4. Responsible sale (including when it is applicable to sell large orders of sky lanterns to customers).

‘Assuring that sky lanterns are manufactured to be safe’

Speaking of the new code of practice, Leon Livermore, TSI's Chief Executive, said: “We are pleased the industry has taken this initiative and developed this code of practice which provides a set of guidelines to help minimise the potential risks associated with the misuse of sky lanterns.”

Farming Minister George Eustice added: “This new industry code of practice will help assure that sky lanterns are manufactured to be safe, biodegradable and sold responsibly.

“People are becoming more aware of the dangers of sky lanterns and how to reduce the risk of them causing damage. Over the last year, Defra has highlighted these risks, and a number of retailers have decided to stop selling them while some local authorities and event organisers have banned sky lanterns altogether.”

Read the ‘Industry Code of Practice – Sky Lanterns’ or find out more about the Jayplas fire.