From: Joe@smokefree.org
Date: Mon, 01/05/04
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To send a letter in support of fire-safe cigarette legislation, go to
http://www.smokefree.net/ma_fire
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BOSTON GLOBE EDITORIAL: Enact Fire-Safe Cigarette Legislation
Boston Globe, 1/5/03
The New Year's Day death of a Brockton man in a fire apparently caused by a
cigarette is the most recent example of a kind of fatal accident that could be
largely eliminated through one simple measure: a requirement that cigarettes
self-extinguish quickly if they are not being smoked.
Each year, 900 to 1,000 Americans die in fires caused by cigarettes, according
to the American Burn Association. More than 10 percent of the victims are
children or other nonsmokers, including firefighters. State Senator Cheryl
Jacques of Needham, a sponsor of legislation requiring that cigarettes
self-extinguish, says that cigarettes are the leading cause of fatal fires both
nationally and in Massachusetts. In many cases, fires begin when smokers fall
asleep or simply leave a lit cigarette in a place where it can ignite other
materials.
New York State moved the country closer to preventing these deaths when its
lawmakers defied the tobacco lobby and passed in 2000 a state law mandating that
all cigarettes sold there meet a self-extinguishing standard. That law, which
was passed after a fire in Brooklyn killed three firefighters, will go into
effect in June.
If a few more states passed such laws, the tobacco companies might welcome what
they have always opposed -- a national fire safety standard for cigarettes -- in
preference to a panoply of differing state standards.
Bills requiring self-extinguishing cigarettes have regularly been introduced in
the Massachusetts Legislature. In 2002 the Senate approved one, but it died in
the House. A leading proponent of federal legislation was the late
Representative J. Joseph Moakley of Boston, who became an advocate after a fire
killed a family in Westwood in 1979.
Technology exists to produce such cigarettes without worsening the cigarettes'
other harmful effects or ruining their taste. Since 2000, Philip Morris has been
selling a new version of its Merit cigarettes in paper with banded "speed bumps"
whose reduced porosity slows burning. Philip Morris's success strips the
industry of any claim that cigarettes cannot be made more fire-safe.
Merit cigarettes were shown to be less likely to start fires under a test
established by the US Commerce Department's National Institute of Standards and
Technology. It took an act of Congress, pushed by Moakley, to get the institute
to create the test.
Massachusetts legislators can follow up on Moakley's efforts by passing
legislation similar to New York's. Jacques is leaving the Legislature, but other
lawmakers in both chambers should take up the call. Requiring that cigarettes be
more fire-safe is a straightforward and long-overdue step that lawmakers can
take to reduce part of tobacco's terrible annual toll in human lives.
To send a letter in support of fire-safe cigarette legislation, go to
http://www.smokefree.net/ma_fire
Joseph W. Cherner
To win smokefree air, go to http://www.smokefree.net/alerts.php
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful citizens can change the
world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." Margaret Mead
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