Fire Safer Cigs: The newly-created Coalition for Fire-Safe Cigarettes

?

March 02, 2007

What a difference a session makes when it comes to regulating cigarettes for fire safety.

Last session, a bill requiring “fire-safe” cigs couldn’t get to the floor for a vote. This year’s version sailed through the House Thursday on a 58-0 House vote Thursday. It now goes to the Senate.

Rep. Patti Smith, a Corbett Republican who co-carried House Bill 2163, said she figured the unanimous support came because the bill was technically different from the 2005 model it follows the mode in New York’s fire-safe cigarette law for how these smokes must be made. Before, Oregon would have permitted other methods of manufacturing cigarettes.

Beyond that, Smith said, so many other states and Canadian provinces have adopted bills that follow the New York model that the tobacco lobby is no longer going after fire-safe cigarette legislation.

A fire-safe cigarette is one that stops burning if no one is puffing on it. The idea is to prevent fires that result from untended cigarettes that fall between sofa cushions or light up bedsheets.

House Majority Leader Dave Hunt had a different theory on why the bill couldn’t get a floor vote last time around, yet proved enormously popular Thursday. He said vote counts from 2005 showed that plenty of lawmakers from both parties wanted to vote for it, but the top Republicans whose party controlled the majority wouldn’t allow a vote because the tobacco lobby opposed it.

“It really is just the difference that a new majority makes,” said Hunt, a Gladstone Democrat whose party is now in the majority.
?

---

‘Fire-Safe’ Tobacco Mandates Multiply
State laws requiring that cigarettes be self- extinguishing may spur voluntary action.

June 10, 2006
By Molly Selvin, Times Staff Writer

The tobacco industry is under growing pressure to offer “fire-safe” cigarettes nationally, as more states join California in mandating the product.

Safety experts say that such cigarettes, which burn out more quickly if a smoker does not take a drag, dramatically reduce the risk of house fires.

But the industry continues to fight efforts by other states to require the product, even though tobacco makers acknowledge that fire-safe smokes don’t cost more to produce and don’t reduce cigarette consumption.

Some lawmakers say the industry might fear that giving ground on fire-safe legislation might leave it vulnerable on a more threatening issue: banning smoking in restaurants and other public places.

Political support for state laws requiring fire-safe cigarettes appears to be growing. In recent weeks, New Hampshire and Illinois joined California, New York and Vermont in passing legislation requiring cigarettes sold in their states to burn out faster than conventional versions.

By January 2008, when Illinois’ law takes effect, nearly a quarter of all Americans will live in states mandating fire-safe sales. California’s law, passed last year, takes effect Jan. 1, 2007.

These laws are needed, backers say, because smoldering cigarettes remain the nation’s leading cause of lethal home fires, killing 700 to 900 people annually, said James Shannon, president of the National Fire Protection Assn.

Burning cigarettes also cause $300 million in property damage yearly, he said. The fires often start when cigarettes roll off ashtrays onto sofa cushions or mattresses.

The tobacco companies deny those safety claims and say they fear that state laws will create a hodgepodge of standards.

There is “no evidence these laws will significantly reduce fires … caused by the careless handling of cigarettes,” said David Howard, a spokesman for R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., maker of Camel cigarettes.

David Adelman, a tobacco industry analyst at Morgan Stanley, called the idea that the product would save lives “ridiculous.”

“It’s a burning piece of paper,” he said. “If you want a fire-safe cigarette, don’t light it.”

Shannon acknowledged that fire-safe cigarettes can start fires but said that “no one can deny that they are safer.” If adopted nationwide, he added, they “will eliminate three-fourths of the cigarette fires.”

In New York, where all cigarettes sold have been self-extinguishing since 2004, “preliminary indications are that it has reduced deaths,” said Eamon Moynihan, a spokesman with the New York State Office of Fire Prevention and Control.

Self-extinguishing cigarettes are wrapped in thin bands of paper. These ridges act as speed bumps to slow the burning and cause an unattended cigarette to die out.

Spokesmen for the cigarette companies said they preferred a national standard on self-extinguishing cigarettes if it superseded tougher state laws.

“A patchwork of state laws would be impossible for us to comply with,” said Ronald Milstein, general counsel for Lorillard Tobacco Co., the maker of Kent cigarettes.

R.J. Reynolds’ Howard fears that other states could pass even more stringent standards. “We have no protection from that,” he said.

But federal legislation requiring self-extinguishing cigarettes has stalled or died in Congress amid staunch industry lobbying. And state laws passed so far are generally similar, allowing tobacco companies to sell the same fire-safe product in each state.

Recent state victories followed a period of years in which the industry snuffed out a wave of bills by cultivating alliances with fire safety groups. Cigarette makers distributed grants and equipment and provided lobbying support to local fire departments and national prevention groups.

Those organizations often kept silent on bills mandating fire-safe cigarettes. Now the major fire safety groups back the state cigarette rules.

The tobacco companies could voluntarily adopt a federal standard similar to New York’s. Instead, they have focused their muscle on state lawmakers — sometimes in surprising ways.

The companies initially opposed the New Hampshire law, according to Pamela Walsh, a spokeswoman for Gov. John Lynch, but backed off before it passed, lobbying hard instead against a restaurant smoking ban. That measure failed by one vote.

Morgan Stanley’s Adelman said the industry fights proposed smoking bans harder than fire-safe rules because the bans, along with excise tax hikes, have cut cigarette consumption.

In Pennsylvania, state Rep. Mark Cohen said the industry had neither actively supported nor opposed his fire-safe bill but worked against an indoor smoking ban that died this week.

In Massachusetts, which has a workplace smoking ban, R.J. Reynolds opposes a pending fire-safe bill, Howard said.

Such legislation, Shannon said, will push the tobacco companies “much closer to the tipping point where they will determine it to be in their interest” to produce only self-extinguishing cigarettes. That decision “is probably tied up with their analysis of what it costs to produce and distribute two different kinds of cigarettes.”
Read

---

Members Hit the Halls of Congress

May 19, 2006

On Wednesday, nearly 60 meetings between AWMA members and their congressional representatives or their staff took place on Capitol Hill.

In an effort to keep the meetings brief for legislators, since they have such busy schedules, AWMA members focused on two primary issues of importance – legislation to promote restrictions on remote sales of cigarettes, and legislation to establish a national standard for LIP (low ignition propensity) cigarettes.

Remote Sales of Cigarettes: AWMA urged members of Congress to fight the illegal sales of cigarettes through the Internet, which is a top priority in this 109th Congress. Remote sellers regularly violate state and local laws imposing taxes on cigarettes. These sellers have an unfair competitive advantage and federal legislation is necessary to level the playing field.

States have lost over $1 billion a year in unpaid cigarette excise taxes and many of these products end up in the hands of underage smokers.

Bills currently in the House and Senate would give the states authority to collect millions of dollars in lost state tax revenue and ensure that tax burdens are equal for all retailers of cigarettes and smokeless tobacco.

LIP Cigarette Legislation: LIP cigarettes are those that demonstrate a reduced ignition propensity. They are less likely to ignite bedding and upholstered furniture. Three states – New York, Vermont and California – have already adopted LIP cigarette laws. Only LIP cigarettes may be sold in these states. Sixteen other states are considering LIP cigarette legislation.

AWMA is concerned that as states begin adopting differing laws mandating LIP cigarettes be sold, distributors will increasingly find it difficult to manage their inventory. The patchwork effect of different state laws would be extremely burdensome to many distributors.

AWMA supports the adoption of the New York State model for LIP cigarettes as a nationwide standard that would include federal preemption language.

Legislators indicated they would review the materials left behind by AWMA members, and analyze the bills currently in Congress on these two issues. Furthermore, some said they would support a full repeal of the estate tax – a major issue for AWMA members.

“You can bank on Shelby for support on that one,” assured John Graffeo, legislative assistant to Sen. Richard C. Shelby (R-AL), who met with AWMA Chairman Ricky Jones of Andalusia Distributing Company, Inc., Andalusia, AL.

Fred Karem, legal counsel for Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), expressed similar concern on the impact of the death tax to Charlie Casper, president of Mydad, Inc., Elizabethtown, KY. “I can assure you the senator is concerned with reducing the impact of the death tax on businesses,” said Karem.

March 16, 2006

Fire Service, Health, and Consumer Organizations Ask Tobacco Companies to Produce Only Fire-Safe Cigarettes

WASHINGTON, March 16 /PRNewswire/ — The newly-created Coalition for Fire-Safe Cigarettes issued a call to the tobacco companies today to produce and sell only “fire-safe” cigarettes nationwide. The Coalition, which is being launched today, is a national group of fire service members, consumer, elderly, and disabled rights advocates, medical and public health practitioners, and others, coordinated by the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), who are committed to saving lives and preventing injuries by reducing the threat of cigarette-ignited fires.

“Hundreds of lives are lost each year in fires caused by smoking materials. Yet the technology for fire-safe cigarettes exists,” said NFPA President James M. Shannon. “The tobacco companies need to use this technology now to help stop the senseless loss of life caused by these fires. Many groups and individuals have intersecting interest in saving lives and preventing injury and property destruction. Together, through this Coalition, we will make our voices heard by the tobacco companies and our elected representatives.”

Cigarette-ignited fires are the leading cause of home fire deaths in the United States, killing 700 to 900 people annually. Additionally, thousands of victims suffer devastating burn and lung injuries, and property losses total millions of dollars each year. One in four cigarette fire casualties is not the smoker and many of the victims are children.

“Because of a smoldering cigarette, my life and others’ were changed drastically,” said Cathy Hedrick, whose son, Kenny, a firefighter in Prince George’s County, Maryland, was killed in a cigarette-ignited fire attempting to save the life of a seven-year-old child who also died. “The technology is available now. Industry and government must do everything in their power to save children and firefighters.”

Fire-safe cigarette mandates have passed in California, New York, and Vermont (and for all of Canada). Bills are under consideration in Alabama, Alaska, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.

“Tobacco companies will soon be required to produce fire-safe cigarettes for 20 percent of the population of this country,” said Shannon. “More states are right behind. We know also that shareholders within the companies have been asking for responsible action on this issue since 2004. The time to act is now!”

“We should not have a patchwork of cigarette fire safety in this country,” said Jim Burns, president of the National Association of State Fire Marshals (NASFM) and New York State Fire Administrator. “The tobacco companies can put an early end to this process by agreeing to manufacture only fire-safe cigarettes.”