Remarks by Sen. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Illinois) in introducing the Joseph Moakley Memorial Fire Safe Cigarette Act on the floor of the U.S. Senate. [...Details]

Congressional Record: Page S3439 - April 25, 2002

S. 2317. A bill to provide for fire safety standards for cigarettes, and for other purposes; to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.

Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I am honored to rise today to introduce the Joseph Moakley Memorial Fire Safe Cigarette Act of 2002. Joe Moakley started his effort to require less fire-prone cigarettes in 1979 and championed this issue until his death this past May. It is time to finish what he started. My colleagues Senators Brownback, Kennedy, and Kerry join me in introducing this legislation to solve a serious fire safety problem, namely, fires that are caused by cigarettes.

The statistics regarding cigarette-related fires are startling. Cigarette-ignited fires accounted for an estimated 140,800 fires in the United States. Such fires cause more than 900 deaths and 2,400 injuries each year. More than $400 million in property damage reported is due to a fire caused by a cigarette. According to the National Fire Protection Association, one out of every four fire deaths in the United States are attributed to tobacco products--by far the leading cause of civilian
deaths in fires. Overall, the Consumer Product Safety Commission estimates that the cost of the loss of human life and personal property from not having a fire-safe cigarette standard is approximately $4.6 billion per year.

In my State of Illinois, cigarette-related fires have also caused too many senseless tragedies. In 1998 alone, the most recent year for which we have data, there were more than 1,700 cigarette-related fires, of which more than 900 were in people's homes. These fires led to 109 injuries and 8 deaths. Property losses resulting from those fires were estimated at
$10.4 million.

Tobacco companies spend billions on marketing and learning how to make cigarettes appealing to kids. 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. A Technical Study Group, TSG, was created by the Federal Cigarette Safety Act in 1984 to investigate the technological and commercial feasibility of creating a self-extinguishing cigarette. This group was made up of representatives of government agencies, the cigarette industry, the furniture industry, public health organizations and fire
safety organizations. The TSG produced two reports that concluded that it is technically feasible to reduce the ignition propensity of cigarettes.

The technology is in place now to begin developing a performance standard for less fire prone cigarettes. 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. For example, six current commercial cigarettes have been tested which
already have reduced ignition propensity. Furthermore, the overall impact on other aspects of the United States Society and economy will
be minimal. Thus, it may be possible to solve this problem at costs that are much less than the potential benefits, which are saving lives and avoiding injuries and property damage.

The Joseph Moakley Memorial Fire Safe Cigarette Act requires Consumer Product Safety Commission to promulgate a fire safety standard, specified in the legislation, for cigarettes. Eighteen months after the legislation is enacted, the Consumer Product Safety Commission, CPSC, would issue a rule creating a safety standard for cigarettes. Thirty months after the legislation is enacted, the standards would become effective for the manufacture and importation of cigarettes. The CPSC would also have the authority to regulate the ignition propensity of cigarette paper for roll-your-own tobacco products.

The standard may be modified if new testing methodology enhances the fire-safety standard. It may also be modified for cigarettes with unique characteristics that cannot be tested using the specified methodology if the Commission determines that the proposed testing methodology and acceptance criterion predict an ignition strength for such cigarettes.

The Act gives the Consumer Product Safety Commission authority over cigarettes only for purposes of implementing and enforcing compliance with this Act and with the standard promulgated under the Act. It also allows states to pass more stringent fire-safety standards for cigarettes.

The Joseph Moakley Memorial Fire Safe Cigarette Act 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.

While the number of people killed each year by fires is dropping because of safety improvements and other factors, too many Americans are dying because of a product that could be less likely to catch fire if simple changes were made. Cigarettes may be less likely to cause fire if they were thinner, more porous or the tobacco were less dense. These common-sense changes could help prevent an all-too-common cause of fires. When Joe Moakley set out more than two decades ago to ensure that the tragic cigarette-caused fire that killed five children and their parents in Westwood, Massachusetts was not repeated, he made a difference. He introduced three bills and passed two of them. One commissioned a study that concluded it was technically feasible to produce a cigarette with a reduced propensity to start fires. The second required that the National institute of Standards and Technology develop a test method for cigarette fire safety, and the last and final bill, the Fire-Safe Cigarette Act of 1999, mandates that the Consumer Product Safety Commission use this knowledge to regulate cigarettes with regard to fire safety.

Today we are here to reintroduce Moakley's bill and to accomplish what he set out to do. I hope that the Commerce Committee will consider this legislation expeditiously and that my colleagues will join me in supporting this effort. Joe waited long enough. He didn't have more time. Let's get this done for him.