London, May 10: A schoolgirl has died after spraying herself with a fabric deodorant in the bathroom of her family home to hide the smell of cigarettes.

Helen Coffey, 14, who had been smoking in the bathroom, collapsed as she used a can of Deofab to spray her clothes. She died a week later in hospital.

Her family said the aerosol spray in the confined space had made her choke and caused a haemorrhage in her throat. Her mother, Agnes, 46, said: ?She sprayed it all over her clothes, the room and on her hands. She accidentally inhaled it and that’s how she died.?

Agnes Coffey added: ?She had a rebellious streak, just like all teenagers. That’s why she used to smoke. I begged her not to but she carried on doing it in secret.

?Now of course I wish I’d let her puff away in front of me. At least she would be alive today. She was a wonderful, kind girl.?

Agnes Coffey bought the Deofab to freshen up the family home in Rumney, Cardiff. ?I had no idea that Helen would use it to try to disguise the smell of smoke,? she said. ?I don’t want this to happen to another family.? The Cardiff coroner, Dr Lawrence Addicott, opened and adjourned an inquest until a later date.

The Deofab manufacturers MSG, of Richmond, London, said: ?It is not a personal deodorant and carries a safety warning in the instructions.

?It’s the world’s number one deodoriser and is manufactured to UK standards. ?

Italy damages

An Italian lung cancer victim who spent seven years inhaling her colleagues' second-hand cigarette smoke in a cramped government office was posthumously awarded 400,000 euros ($513,800) in damages today by a Rome court.

The damages, which will be paid to her surviving relatives, are believed to be the largest ever awarded in Italy due to second-hand smoke