Fire Standards Compliant cigarettes (FSC) are special cigarettes designed to extinguish quickly, if ignored, with the intention of preventing unintended fires.

Cigarettes are the leading cause of residential fire deaths in the United States, having resulted in an estimated 800 civilian deaths, 1,660 civilian injuries and $575 million in direct property damage in 2005.^[1] Typically, a cigarette drops from an ashtray into a crevice in upholstered furniture, smolders for several hours, then bursts into flame; related fatalities are primarily from smoke inhalation.

Contents 1 History 2 Regional implementation 2.1 Canada 2.2 Europe 2.3 Australia 3 Issues 4 References 5 External links

[edit] History

In 1929, a cigarette-ignited fire in Lowell, MA, caught the attention of U.S. Congresswoman Edith Nourse Rogers (D-MA); she called for the National Bureau of Standards (Bureau) to develop technology for "self-snubbing" cigarettes. The Boston Herald American covered the story on March 31, 1932, noting, that after three years of research, the Bureau had developed a “self-snubbing” cigarette and the Bureau suggested that cigarette manufacturers “take up the idea.” No cigarette manufacturer took the advice of the Bureau.^[2]

The United States Congress established the Consumer Product Safety Commission [8] in 1973 to protect the public from hazardous products. Congress excluded from its jurisdiction tobacco products, however, while assigning it responsibility for flammable fabrics.^[3] The Commission immediately regulated the flammability of mattresses^[3] and has worked with furniture manufacturers to establish voluntary flammability standards^[4] for upholstered furniture, although more recently those standards have come to be considered mandatory.^[3]

In 1978 Andrew McGuire, a burn survivor, activist and winner of a 1985 MacArthur Fellowship for his work on the flammability of children's sleepwear, started a grassroots campaign to prevent house fire deaths by changing the cigarette.^{[citation needed]}

McGuire secured funding for an investigation of cigarettes and fires which became Cigarettes and Sofas: How the Tobacco Lobby Keeps the Home Fires Burning. Massachusetts congressman Joe Moakley introduced federal fire-safe-cigarette legislation in the fall of 1979, after a cigarette fire in his district killed a family of seven; California senator Alan Cranston authored a matching Senate bill.

The Tobacco Institute fought all efforts to regulate cigarettes, financing a fire-prevention education program to deflect firefighter support of the campaign.^[5][6][7] When New York was poised to pass a state bill, a compromise resulted in the Cigarette Safety Act of 1984, which funded a three-year study under the auspices of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, which reported to Congress in 1987 that it was technically feasible and maybe commercially feasible to make a cigarette that was less likely to start fires.^[8] Legislative activity continued in the states while the federal government, cigarette manufacturers, and advocates fought about next steps. McGuire and colleagues continued to inform advocates about cigarette fires and prevention strategies: legislation and liability.^{[9][10][11][12]}

A later compromise led to the Fire Safe Cigarette Act of 1990. The resulting study, while more contentious, laid the groundwork for a flammability test method for cigarettes.^[13] Federal efforts to implement a standard stalled after this, as the Reagan and Bush administrations supported free markets, not regulation. The grassroots campaign focused on state efforts. McGuire continued to publish reports about tactics and progress.^[14][15][16]

In 2000, New York passed the first state law requiring that cigarettes have a lower likelihood of starting a fire. By the spring of 2006, four more states had passed laws modeled after New York's: Vermont, New Hampshire, California, and Illinois. McGuire published an update for the campaign.^[17]

That spring, the National Fire Protection Association[9] decided to fund the Fire Safe Cigarette Coalition[10] to accelerate this grassroots movement. Currently, in the United States the fire-safe cigarette law is in effect in 33 states, 17 states have passed the legislation, and it will take effect in January of 2010, except for Wyoming whom just passed the legislation this year.^[18] Fifteen lawsuits were filed regarding cigarette-ignited fire deaths and injuries between 1982 and the present. The first successful lawsuit resulted in a settlement for a toddler severely burned in car fire allegedly caused by a cigarette.^[19]

RJ Reynolds has said recently that it would sell only “fire safe” cigarettes.^[20] Philip Morris now actively supports legislation.^[21]

[edit] Regional implementation

[edit] Canada

On October 1, 2005, Canada became the first country to implement a nationwide cigarette fire-safety standard. The law requires that all cigarettes manufactured in or imported into Canada must burn their full length no more than 25% of the time when tested using ASTM International method E2187-04: Standard Test Method for Measuring the Ignition Strength of Cigarettes. The law is based on the New York State legislation. Each year in Canada, fires started by smokers' materials significant kill approximately 70 people cause 300 injuries, according to a study done by the Canadian Association of Fire Chiefs.^[22]

[edit] Europe

On November 30th of 2007, 27 EU nations approved a European Commission proposal which would require the tobacco industry to use fire-retardant paper in all cigarettes in order to cut down on the number of sometimes fatal fires which dropped cigarettes cause each year.^[23] The EU Commison has said, that all cigarettes sold throughout the European Union will be self-extinguishing "fire-safe" brands by 2011.^[24]

In the UK there has been a proposal to ban the "old style" cigarettes in order to implement a fire-safe alternative^[25] Nearly 2,000 people across Europe are killed each year due to house fires cause by cigarettes and another 7,500 are injured.^[26]

[edit] Australia

In Australia, around 14 people die annually from cigarette related fires^[27]. The government has accepted the proposal for FSCs and is in the process of implementing regulations.^[28] Cigarette companies will be required to change their products to ensure that cigarettes self-extinguish more readily, before the regulations come into force in March 2010.^[29]

[edit] Issues

The term "fire-safe" is controversial as no lit cigarette can truly be considered "fire safe." Some refer to "fire-safe" cigarettes as having RIP (reduced ignition propensity).

Problems with fire safe cigarettes have been voiced by some consumers. For example, it has been observed that in order for a fire safe cigarette to stay lit, the smoker has to drag harder and more often. As a result, it is more likely that the end of the cigarette will burn down too fast, potentially creating a hazard in its own right. Some question whether a cigarette that extinguishes itself in a matter of minutes (as opposed to hours) will substantially mitigate its potential to cause fires.^{[citation needed]}

Fire safe cigarettes are produced by adding bands of EVA (ethylene vinyl acetate) to the cigarette paper during manufacturing, in order to decrease burn rate at the bands.^[30] The combustion toxicity of EVA has not been studied to any extent, but combustion byproducts are known to include carbon monoxide and "unknown hydrocarbons".^[31]

In early 2009, opposition towards FSCs became evident through complaints made on social networking websites. There is also an online petition made by "citizens against fire-safe cigarettes" which cites many of the known hazards of these cigarettes in its petition.^[32]

Some of the many concerns voiced by smokers:

1. The new cigarettes have an unacceptable "copper or metal" taste to them, which most smokers find unpleasant or even disgusting.^{[citation needed]}
2. The newly added chemicals in these cigarettes have not been put into proper testing or any studies and are not being looked at carefully enough by those who are putting these laws into effect.^{[citation needed]}
3. Fire Safe Cigarettes require that a smoker inhale in less than one minute or the cigarette will extinguish itself. The need to keep an FSC cigarette burning increases the number of inhales per cigarette, and thus increases the amount of tar, nicotine and carbon monoxide intake into the smoker's lungs. The result is that the cigarette poses a greater health risk to the smoker.^{[citation needed]}
4. The Fire Safe Cigarette design has resulted in more frequent ash dropping, which may even be less fire-safe than regular cigarettes. Many smokers have complained that the added bands that are put in the cigarette paper make the ashes heavier, and therefore causes them to drop "randomly", burning into floors or clothing. These bands are put in the paper to help make the cigarette go out when it has burned down to one of them. But besides the annoyance to most smokers to constantly relight the cigarette, sparks have also been reported to fly off the cigarette when it has burned down to one of these bands and is relit.^{[citation needed]}
5. Having to relight cigarettes frequently or constantly increases the potential for more fire related accidents with matches and lighters than regular cigarettes which usually only have to be lit once.
6. The added chemicals contained in FSC cigarettes have proven^[where?] to be more toxic than regular cigarettes and cause increased health related problems for smokers. Symptoms/conditions include, but are not limited to: nausea, sores in mouth and throat, dry throat, constant headaches, extreme coughing, tightness in the chest, vomiting, body aches, pain in the abdomen and respiratory conditions including asthma and bronchitis, as well as other possibly more serious health conditions.
7. The Harvard School of Health reported that when comparing NY Cigarettes (FSC) versus Regular Cigarettes, the FSC cigarettes produced 13.9% more Naphthalene and 11.4% more carbon monoxide than regular cigarettes. Naphthalene is commonly found in moth balls, and exposure in high amounts can result in symptoms of acute exposure include headache, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, malaise, confusion, anemia, jaundice, convulsions, and coma.^[33]
8. Phillip Morris USA has reported that the Adhesive ethylene vinyl acetate and polyvinyl acetate are used in the non-tobacco ingredients of cigarettes produced as a Side-seam adhesive. However, Phillip Morris USA fails to distinguish the differences in levels between regular and FSC cigarettes. The amount does not exceed .6 % combined. Since additional layers of paper are used in FSC cigarettes, more adhesive is needed in the form of ethylene vinyl acetate..^[34]

Most states have enacted laws requiring cigarettes to be meet certain fire standards for self-extinguishing when not being smoked. The laws require cigarettes to exhibit a greater likelihood of self-extinguishing using a prescribed laboratory test method developed by ASTM International (formerly, the American Society for Testing and Materials). These cigarettes are known as Fire Standards Compliant (FSC) cigarettes. It is important to note:

• FSC cigarettes are not “fire-safe”. Anything that burns, if handled carelessly, can cause a fire.
• FSC cigarettes should be handled and disposed of properly, just like all cigarettes.
• Philip Morris USA’s FSC cigarettes are labeled with the term “FSC” on the pack above the UPC code.
• State laws generally contain provisions permitting the sale of non-FSC cigarettes that have been tax stamped by wholesalers and retailers in the state prior to the effective date of the state’s FSC law.

Banded Cigarette Paper PM USA uses cigarette paper technology known as banded cigarette paper to comply with the performance standard in the FSC laws. The idea behind this technology is that the cigarette is more likely to self-extinguish. As a result, FSC cigarettes may extinguish unexpectedly when unattended.

About PM USA’s banded paper:

• Bands applied to the cigarette paper use ingredients already used in non-FSC cigarettes.
• These bands act like "speed bumps" (by decreasing the flow of oxygen through the paper to the burning tobacco) to slow down the rate at which the cigarette burns as the lit end crosses over them.
• FSC cigarettes do not use fire-retardant chemicals in order to meet state fire standards.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Fire Safe Cigarettes Information
• FSC Research Report