A NEW detector is set to sniff out school pupils enjoying a crafty smoke in the school toilets

The Cig-Arrete device, which is sensitive enough to detect tiny amounts of tobacco smoke, was developed for use in industry but headteachers were quick to realise its potential in schools.

The detector is the brainchild of Burnley-based Radal Technology.

Partner Brent Dunleavey said the response to the £100 device was "fantastic" after an article on it appeared in The Times Education Supplement.

"We've had a lot of orders - we haven't even added them up yet," said Brent who has been working on perfecting the alarm system for 18 months.

"We spent ages thinking of a name for it, and one day when we were sat having a drink we just came up with Cig-Arrete. When we first tried to register it with the Patents' Office they said our logo, which looks like the no-smoking sign, couldn't be allowed, but we won an appeal." The firm, based at Lydgate, said the device in a tough vandal-proof plastic box, is at least six times more sensitive than the average domestic smoke alarm. During the testing process, two schools on Merseyside reported excellent results, with the alarms serving an effective deterrent once a few red-faced pupils were caught lighting up.

Anti-smoking campaigner Professor Ray Donnelly, founder and medical director of the Roy Castle Foundation, said:

"We very much welcome this machine to help young smokers overcome their addiction."

Of the one-in-four 15-year-olds who smoke, Prof Donnelly said half could not go through the day without having a cigarette.

"These are the lung cancer victims of the future. Smoking amongst children is a huge problem and anything we can do to help them stop and not start is good news," he said.

The Foundation, named after the popular television presenter who died from lung cancer in September 1994, is also pressing local education authorities to ban smoking on all school premises, including staff rooms.

Prof Donnelly said: "It's just incongruous that teachers can smoke in school and then tell children not to."

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