Tobacco Cartel to Make Fire-Safe Cigs for New York
While Rest of the Nation Burns

Parts excerpted from Star-News, 3/28/04

At tobacco factories in North Carolina, technicians are working to design cigarettes that snuff themselves out, offering the possibility of saving lives and property.

But, those cigarettes will not be for sale in most states. They are being made only for New York to comply with a new law that goes into effect on June 28 requiring all cigarettes sold to pass a laboratory test proving that they snuff themselves out before starting other things on fire.

At R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co.'s Tobaccoville plant near Winston-Salem, technicians are setting up a separate production line to make cigarettes just for the New York market, said company spokeswoman Ellen Matthews. "We intend to fully comply with New York's law," said Ms. Matthews, adding that technicians are at work on the cigarette's design and manufacture. New York-bound cigarettes would be made separately from the rest of the factory's production.

A spokesman for Greensboro-based Lorillard also said the company intended to meet New York's June deadline and that the redesigned cigarettes would only be sold in New York.

Reynolds' position is that the so-called "low ignition propensity" cigarette designs will not reduce the incidence of accidental fire. The company also claims the regulations add costs and that consumers won't like them because they taste bad and may go out while smoking. Not every cigarette maker agrees. Richmond, Va.-based Philip Morris USA has a self-extinguishing cigarette, Merit, on the national market and has a corporate statement that supports New York's law and backs nationwide regulations.

But the company said last week that the cigarettes it makes to comply with New York's law will only be sold in New York state. Several states are considering such rules. Congress has moved slowly on the issue, authorizing studies but never implementing national standards. New York's law is the first of its kind in the nation. "That tobacco manufacturers won't make fire-safe cigarettes for the rest of the country is a disgrace," said Joe Cherner, a smokefree activist from New York. "It's shocking when you consider that cigarettes are the nation's No. 1 cause of fire deaths."

According to the American Burn Association, about 900 people in the United States die each year in fires started by cigarettes, and about 2,500 are injured. About 100 of the fire deaths each year are children and nonsmokers. Nationally, annual human and property costs of fires caused by careless smoking total about $6 billion.

Tobacco companies won't give away the proprietary secrets of their processes, but the new cigarettes have thickened bands of paper at measured intervals along the cigarette that deprive a lit cigarette's ember of oxygen. If the cigarette is left to burn, the ember hits these so-called "speed bumps" and snuffs out. Currently, a lit cigarette that's left alone will burn continuously until the end.

The changes required by the New York law will cost cigarette companies money, which presumably will be passed onto smokers. Ms. Matthews, with Reynolds, said what those costs are and how they will affect the retail price is secret proprietary information.

New York's law is based on "Standard E2187-02b," a laboratory test designed by the American Society of Testing and Materials. The test is similar but not exactly the same as the one developed by the federal government's National Institute for Standards and Technology, which supporters in Congress hoped could become the basis of a national law. To pass New York's test, cigarettes must snuff out before they light sheets of laboratory filter paper on fire.

"We do not believe that it will cut down on the number of fires," Reynolds scientist David Townsend said. Mr. Townsend said the laboratory test does not consider how fires start. The focus would be better put on ignition standards for furniture fabrics, he said.

Others disagree.

"They want everything to be fireproof except for the thing that causes the fire," said Mr. Cherner, smokefree advocacy group successfully won a full public smoking ban in New York City. "The real issue is selling cigarettes. A cigarette that goes out can be re-lit, meaning they'll sell fewer cigarettes. As usual, with Big Tobacco, it's all about money."

North Carolina's fire marshal believes self-extinguishing cigarettes are a good idea.

"It's something that's been pushed for a long time and makes sense," said Jim Long, who also is the state's elected insurance commissioner. "There's always the human factor, but we still do everything we can to prepare for fire."

But, he said, getting manufacturers to change their products with an eye to reducing the chance for fire is politically difficult in North Carolina because the effort is aimed at two of the state's traditional industries. "It's difficult to have those kinds of conversations here," he said. "Because it deals with persuading cigarette makers to change their product and furniture makers to change their products." Massachusetts, Rhode Island and California are considering laws requiring self-extinguishing cigarettes. Lawmakers in Connecticut and Minnesota have debated similar bills but defeated them. Other states are watching how New York's law will work.

Nationally, legislation was proposed in 1999 and 2002 to require that the standard be applied nationwide, but none were adopted. New York passed its law in 2000 but took nearly three years to develop regulations it requires.

The issue is new to many North Carolina lawmakers. Any proposal that affects any part of the tobacco industry becomes a charged issue in the General Assembly. Tobacco growing and cigarette making are old and established industries in the state. Annual efforts to raise the tax on cigarettes in North Carolina, which is among the lowest in the country, meet with failure in the state House and Senate. "It is a very innovative concept and has a lot of merit to it," said state Rep. Thomas Wright, a Democrat from Wilmington and a fire-and-rescue consultant. "Considering the number of fires started by cigarette smoking in bed; that is probably a very wise and creative move. I'm very interested in it."

Last month, Canada adopted the New York standard and thus became the first country to pass fire-safe cigarette legislation. Implementation will begin on January 1, approximately six months after New York.


Joseph W. Cherner