Hazards fuel new bill for fire-safe cigarettes

Where there's smoke there's fire - unless it's a fire-safe cigarette.

A N.C. General Assembly bill that would require the manufacturing and sale of cigarettes that burn out when left unattended moved forward after a House committee approved the legislation.

The cigarettes, described as "fire-safe," are made with two or three thin layers of a paper band that smolders the burning tobacco when the cigarette isn't being smoked.

If approved, the bill would outlaw the sale of any cigarette not meeting the fire-safe requirements.

The fire-safe cigarettes don't eliminate the potential to start fires, but they reduce those risks. As an unattended fire-proof cigarette burns, the paper layers slow the fire until the tobacco self-extinguishes.

Rep. Verla Insko, D-Orange, introduced the legislation at the request of the N.C. Jaycee Burn Center.

She said she was surprised by the statistics as she learned more about cigarette-related fires.

In the United States, unattended cigarettes are the leading cause of home fire fatalities, killing between 700 and 900 people each year, according to the National Fire Protection Association's Fire Analysis and Research Division.

"Most of the people who die in fires started by cigarettes are not the ones who were smoking," she said. "There are a lot of innocent parties."

Fire-safe cigarettes possibly could have prevented the 1996 Mother's Day fire that killed five at the Phi Gamma Delta house. Three others were injured in the blaze that started after a graduation party.

That fire was on Insko's mind when she introduced the bill.

She saw the fire's effects the next morning as she drove by the Carolina Inn.

"Every time I hear about a cigarette-related fire, I always think about that tragedy," Insko said. "It had quite an impact."

The Phi Gamma Delta fire prompted the University and town to readdress fire safety issues.

After the Phi Gamma Delta fire, all Greek houses were required to install fire sprinklers. Each house has a fire marshal.

Three states - California, New York and Vermont - already have similar legislation in place. In 11 other states, legislation has been passed but not yet enacted.

In the first year the fire-safe cigarettes were required in New York, deaths from unattended cigarettes dropped sharply.

North Carolina depends heavily on the tobacco industry, but Insko says the legislation has received the industry's support so far.

Insko says the bill is a significant step toward decreasing cigarette-related fires and the deaths associated with them.

"Public safety is an important part of the state's responsibility," Insko said. "It's well worth doing to save that many lives."

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