Revolutionary pint glasses to reduce injuries

Shatterproof pint glasses were unveiled last week to reduce the number of injuries caused by broken glass.

Produced under the Design Out Crime programme, an initiative from the Home Office’s Design and Technology Alliance Against Crime and the Design Council, the two new designs will now undergo a range of intensive tests before they are ready to be piloted in pubs and bars.

Although alcohol-related violence has fallen by 33 per cent since 1997, there remain 87,000 violent incidents involving glass each year, which in addition to the impact on victims, their families and communities, costs the NHS an estimated £2.7 billion each year.

Designed to be safer, but also a more popular alternative to plastic, the two new designs are the first major advance in glassware for pubs since the 1960s. They are:

• Glass Plus – looks just like a regular pint glass but has a thin transparent coating of bio-resin on the inside. This makes it stronger and if the glass is broken it binds together dangerous shards, drastically reducing the likelihood of injury to customers and staff.
• Twin Wall – made by bonding together two ultra-thin layers of glass in a concept similar to laminated car windscreens. It makes the pint glass extremely difficult to break, but in the event that it does smash, any dangerous shards would be safely held together by a layer of resin.

Home Secretary Alan Johnson said: “Glassing causes horrific injuries and has a lasting and devastating impact on victims and their families. I hope these designs will help bring an end to such attacks. While this is never going to be the only answer to preventing such violence, it is an important step forward which could also provide retailers and drinkers with a preferable alternative to plastic glasses.”