Smoke against fire
A new way of fighting against the damages that produce tobacco smoking was required in California State. The amount of fire accidents that resulted from not extinguished cigarettes increase with big steps. It comes to tragic number.
Disaster that results from carelessly smoking are placed on the leading place among all fire calamities. This was resulted by Californian National Fire Protect Agency. In 2003, was killed around 760 people, harmed more than 1.500 and property damage counted 481 million dollars.
So, California calls for “fire-safe cigarettes designed to extinguish when dropped or left unattended”. But, this novelty has not to affect the taste, flavor and, of course, cost of tobacco product.
As affirmed Assemblyman Paul Koretz, cigarette smokers would be affected neither financial nor moral by this smoking tobacco. It must represent a combination of utility and pleasure.
The legislation of producing such cigarettes was passed in 2005, but it had one year adjustment period.
And it appeared. It is a tobacco product that contains two or three tinny paper bands and this is assumed to put out fire if the cigarette soon would be puffing.
The first state that was lucky to taste fire-safe cigarettes was New York. It was placed on tobacco market of this state in June 2004. Other states that follow after New York were Vermont, Illinois, New Hampshire and Massachusetts.
Before the appearance of that cigs in sale they were laboratory tasted, which require that 75 percent of those tested extinguish before burning through 10 layers of standard filter paper.
In 2005,in New York after a full year of smoking self-extinguished cigarettes registered a 10% decrease of fire accidents and 26% reduction of fire-related deaths in comparison with rates of 2000 and 2003 years.
But, as affirmed Bill Phelps, spokesman for Philip Morris USA, “anything that burns, if you handle it carelessly, can cause a fire.” These cigarettes can create confusion that they offer 100% fire security and smokers will become more carelessly. This idea was sustained also by R.J. Reynolds Co on his web site.
These cigarettes had harsher taste, affirmed Audrey Silk, founder of a New York City smokers’ rights group “Citizens Lobbying Against Smoker Harassment”. Philip Morris didn’t change the composition of the tobacco ingredients, but the taste is different. Also, smokers of these cigarettes used more often to puff because otherwise cig will “die”.
But, this kind of cigarettes seems to be sole possibility to fight against local and global smoking problem.
