A young local boy named Daniel Mitchard-Harrison, his family and The Northern Echo can now take pride in the fact that they have successfully changed a law on children’s pyjamas which could save lives in the future.
After Daniel’s horrific accident in 2007, his family teamed together with The Northern Echo to begin a two year international campaign aimed at changing a law which meant that pyjamas would be safer if they caught fire.
In 2007 when he was just 2 years old, Daniel’s pyjama bottoms caught fire due to a spark from a wood burning stove. Although the trousers were on his legs for less than a minute, one fifth of his body was scarred. His mother’s quick thinking to pull the trousers off him and put him in a bath of cold water could have been a decision that saved his life. Nevertheless, he spent seven weeks in a Newcastle hospital whilst he had blood transfusions, skins grafts and other operations to help him with mobility in the groin area.
Previously the law stated that only loose fitting nightwear such as nighties and dressing gowns should be flame-resistant, as boy’s pyjamas were considered tighter fitting and therefore less likely to catch fire their clothing was unprotected by law.
After Daniel’s terrible accident, the Protect Our Children Campaign ran by The Northern Echo managed to accumulate 2000 signatures from around the world in favour of changing the law so that all pyjamas were fire-proof, including those of other fire victims, researchers, surgeons and MPs.
Phil Willis, the MP of Harrogate praised the campaign in the House of Commons and asked the government to show “That this House applauds the Northern Echo for its Protect our Children campaign which aims to close a loophole in the law that allows children’s pyjamas to be exempt from the flame-resistant regulations that apply to dressing gowns and girls’ nightdresses; calls on all responsible retailers to remove immediately stocks of non-flame-resistant pyjamas from their stores; and asks the Government as a matter of urgency to take appropriate steps to close the loophole in the law by making it illegal to import, manufacture or sell pyjamas that are not flame-resistant.”
During the campaign, leading supermarket chains were asked to reconsider the safety of their nightwear range. Whilst Woolworths and Tesco said that they would do this, Asda, the company in which Daniel’s pyjamas were from, refused to change their pyjamas as they said that a survey showed that their customers were more willing to buy pyjamas that were not fire-resistant over pyjamas that were chemically treated to be fire proof.
The European regulations which had not been changed since 1987, were finally changed yesterday. The new law states that pyjamas should burn no more than 2.5 inches in 10 seconds. Stephen Hughes, a North-East MEP said: “the new standard includes a section on pyjamas – dealing with flash burn times and fabrics – which goes some way to offering protection to pyjama wearers rather than only nightie wearers”.
