An investigation has started to reveal that the practice of putting a distillate of petroleum (parrafin) on your body can lead to a very painful fiery death.

Firefighter Chris Bell, who is a watch commander with West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service, says the actual number of deaths linked to the creams is likely to be much higher.

“Hundreds of thousands of people use them, we’re not sure how many fire deaths might have occurred but it could be into the hundreds,” he said.

His concerns were echoed by Mark Hazelton, group manager for community safety at London Fire Brigade.

He said many fire services do not have forensic investigation teams able to properly assess the role of paraffin cream in fires.

In brief, repeated use of a petroleum-based oil in a cream causes soft furniture to become filled with the highly flammable substance. It’s essentially (pun not intended) pouring gasoline on your bed and chair, albeit very very slowly. Then when a fire starts, the outcome of dousing flammable oil is predictable. Product manufacturers haven’t yet been held accountable for this alarming rise in deaths linked to their ingredients.