Copyright 2006 The Omaha World-Herald Company
By JOSH SWARTZLANDER
Omaha World-Herald (Nebraska)
The Iowa Fire Marshal on Tuesday said he would like the state to require that all cigarettes sold in Iowa to be designed to go out if they’re not being smoked.
Meantime, the Nebraska Fire Marshal’s Office took a neutral stance on the question. Such legislation is being adopted by a growing number of states across the country to help prevent deaths in fires caused by cigarettes.
Earlier this month, Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich became the fourth governor to sign a self-extinguishing cigarette law. Governors in New York, Vermont and California already had signed similar laws.
Self-extinguishing cigarettes are wrapped in thin bands of less-porous paper that act as speed bumps on a burning cigarette. About 90 percent of cigarettes designed in such a way put themselves out before burning completely down if they’re not being smoked, according to a 2005 Harvard study. Nearly 100 percent of normal cigarettes burn completely down.
Smoking is the leading cause of fire deaths in the United States, killing hundreds every year.
In the last three years, seven of the 49 fire deaths investigated by the Nebraska Fire Marshal’s Office were smokingrelated.
Smoking caused 24 of the 135 fire deaths in Iowa between 2003 and 2005, according to the State Fire Marshal’s Office. “It is a big issue,” said State Fire Marshal Jim Kenkel.
Self-extinguishing cigarettes would not eliminate the risk of smoking fire deaths but would greatly reduce that risk, Kenkel said.
“It is my desire to introduce legislation through the Iowa Department of Public Safety next year to get the ball rolling,” he said.
Ray Nance of the Nebraska Fire Marshal’s Office said it’s too early to know for certain how effective the self-extinguishing cigarettes are in preventing fires.
The first state law to require the special cigarettes went into effect in New York on June 28, 2004. Vermont’s law went into effect this month. The California law won’t go into effect until January 2007 and the Illinois law until a year after that. A federal self-extinguishing cigarette law went into effect in Canada in October 2005.
Nance did agree that the number of fire deaths caused by smoking is alarming. Smoking quickly can turn deadly when someone falls asleep in bed or in a chair while holding a lit cigarette, he said, adding that the elderly especially are at risk.
Smoking “was definitely one of the leading causes of fire deaths in Nebraska last year,” Nance said. “These new cigarettes will keep some of these fires from happening, but it’s not a 100 percent cure-all.”
Other leading causes of fires include heating and cooking, Nance said.
Tobacco companies have argued that self-extinguishing cigarettes could be more toxic and hurt business.
However, the Harvard study concludes that the specially designed cigarettes are effective in stopping cigarettes from burning completely down without affecting toxicity or sales.
“There is no valid reason why cigarette manufacturers should not sell (self-extinguishing) cigarettes nationwide,” the report says.
Philip Morris USA says it supports a nationwide self-extinguishing cigarette law but not individual state laws because it does not want to manufacture different kinds of cigarettes for each state.
National bills have been introduced in Congress but have been defeated, said Lorraine Carli, a spokeswoman for the National Fire Protection Association. “At this point, the most likely scenario is a state-bystate effort,” she said.