CONSUMER safety campaigners have said some gas-related deaths and accidents in European holiday resorts are going unreported.
Ms Stephanie Trotter, a member of Consumer Safety International (CSI) and president of Co-Gas Safety, a UK-based gas safety charity, said the incidence of gas-related deaths and accidents in European resorts was being under-reported.
She called for the harmonisation of regulations covering new and existing gas installations across the EU.
"The problem is that a lot of these countries claim that they have no accidents but they don't even record the data when they happen," said Ms Trotter in Brussels yesterday, where the CSI and Co-Gas Safety were seeking support for harmonisation from MEPs and EU officials.
In 1994, an elderly Irish couple died of carbon monoxide poisoning at a resort in Tenerife. An inquest into the deaths of Mr Vincent Tansey and his wife, Patricia, concluded they had died after carbon monoxide leaked into their room from a faulty gas heater.
Their son, Eugene, is now involved in the harmonisation campaign. "Gas installations are the last thing people think about when they go on holidays," he said. "When they arrive at the hotel they don't inspect the place before they go to the pool or the bar. It's human nature that people will distance themselves from it. It's only when something goes terribly wrong, as in my parents' case, that people become aware of it."
The absence of annual inspections in many EU resorts is a particular cause of concern. "In many holiday complexes there is a certificate valid for four years which covers gas appliances and does not have to be inspected during that time," said Ms Trotter. "Grills and ovens can then become clogged up, causing explosions or carbon monoxide poisoning.
Mr William Fagan, the Director of Consumer Affairs, said his office was aware of "a handful" of cases of gas-related complaints from Irish holidaymakers over a number of years, the principal one being the Tansey case. He said his office would support harmonisation as a general principle, but there might be difficulties in enforcing the regulation consistently across the EU.
Mr Fagan said that often the problem was not with the equipment but with the way it was installed. "It's not possible for a consumer to judge these things, so I think they need a general level of reassurance.
The president of the Irish Travel Agents' Association, Mr Brendan Moran, said his organisation would welcome any measure which would make properties, both at home and abroad, safer.
"The percentage of accidents of this type is exceptionally small, but the ITAA would take the view that one life lost is too many," he said.