By Brandi Watters
The Herald Bulletin
ANDERSON, Ind. — Starting Wednesday, cigarette smoking must be safer, by state mandate.
A law that requires cigarettes to be less prone to burn on their own and start fires goes into effect Wednesday, changing the way smokers puff.
The Indiana General Assembly passed the Fire Safety Cigarette Act in 2008 requiring cigarettes to contain two "speed bumps" of thick paper that cause cigarettes to extinguish if they are not puffed.
The thicker paper does not change the price or flavor of the cigarettes, but some smokers have noticed a change, according to Rodney Burtner, manager of Low Bob's Discount Tobacco in Anderson.
"There's been a lot of people complaining about it," he said.
Not everyone sensed the change while puffing away.
Though the law goes into effect today, smoke shops like Low Bob's have been selling the fire-safe cigarettes for months, and some smokers didn't even seem to notice a difference.
"We've had them for a while and I think people were already smoking them and they didn't even know it," Burtner said.
Al Rose, manager of Discount Tobacco, said he knew his cigarettes were different immediately. "You can definitely tell a difference."
"You tend to draw on it a little bit more to keep it going," he said. "If you took your cigarette and set it down in the ashtray, it pretty much will go out on its own."
Though some smokers may sense a change, Burtner doesn't think it'll change the way people buy cigarettes, and it likely won't stop them from smoking.
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