Dateline: 04/30/02 

Tobacco companies would be required to make cigarettes that stop burning by themselves instead of continuing to smolder if dropped or left unattended under a new bill introduced last week in the U.S. Senate.

The law would greatly reduce deaths caused by smoking-related fires according to Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Illinois), who along with Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kansas) introduced the Joseph Moakley Memorial Fire Safe Cigarette Act in the Senate on April 25. 

According to statistics from the U.S. Fire Administration, cigarette-ignited fires cause more than 900 deaths each year and more than 2,400 injuries; many of these victims are innocent children. Cigarette-ignited fires also accounted for more than $400 million in property damage in 2001. Last year in Illinois alone, more than 1,700 smoking-related fires broke out, with over 900 of those fires in people's homes. Those fires led to 109 injuries and eight deaths. Property losses resulting from the fires were estimated at $10.4 million.

"Tobacco companies spend billions on marketing and learning how to make cigarettes appealing to kids," said Sen. Durbin in his remarks to the Senate. " It is not unreasonable to ask those same companies to invest in safer cigarette paper to make their products less likely to burn down a house."

The proposed law would give the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) the authority to establish guidelines for fire safe cigarettes. The CPSC is also provided the authority to regulate the ignition propensity of cigarette paper for roll-your-own tobacco products. The bill also prohibits advance stockpiling of non-complying cigarettes.

In his introductory remarks, Sen. Durbin noted that a 1984 Technical Study Group required under the Federal Cigarette Safety Act had investigate the technological and commercial feasibility of creating a self-extinguishing cigarette. In two reports, the group found it technically possible reduce the ignition propensity of cigarettes.

"The technology is in place now to begin developing a performance standard for less fire prone cigarettes," said Durbin. "The manufacture of less fire-prone cigarettes may require some advances in cigarette design and manufacturing technology, but the cigarette companies have demonstrated their capability to make cigarettes of reduced ignition propensity with no increase in tar, nicotine or carbon monoxide in the smoke."

Along with bi-partisan support in Congress, the bill is supported by more than 25 public health groups including the American Cancer Society, the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids and the American Academy of Pediatrics. It has been endorsed by the Congressional Fire Services Institute and its 42 member organizations. Tobacco giant Phillip Morris is also supporting the bill.

In a press conference, Sen. Brownback, the bill's lead Republican co-sponsor, said "This legislation represents a common sense, bi-partisan, bi-cameral approach that has the potential to save hundreds of lives every year. Giving the Consumer Product Safety Commission the job of setting up fire safety standards for cigarettes is supported by industry; it's supported by firemen; and it's the right thing to do."

The bill is named in honor of former-Congressman Joe Moakley who introduced the first cigarette fire-safety legislation in 1979, shortly after a fire started by a cigarette killed 5 young children and their parents in his suburban Boston, Massachusetts district. Moakley fought for the passage of federal legislation requiring safer cigarettes until his death in May 2001.