 "Photo: Jackie Gilles; The Daily Texan")
Starting Jan. 1, all cigarettes sold in Texas will have to follow a new fire safety law that requires cigarettes to self-extinguish.
As a response to the growing number of cigarette fires in Texas, Gov. Rick Perry signed a bill last June stating that by Jan. 1, 2010, all cigarettes sold in Texas have must be certified fire-standard compliant, said County Fire Marshal Paul Maldonado.
Each year, 700 to 900 people die in the United States from cigarette-induced domestic fires. In 2006, cigarettes ignited 1,880 fires in Texas and caused more than $14 million in property damage, with 10 civilian deaths and 35 civilian and 10 firefighter injuries, according to the Texas Department of Insurance.
The fire-standard-compliant cigarette reduces burning time necessary to ignite furniture or bedding because it is designed to self-extinguish if left unattended, Maldonado said. The cigarette is wrapped with two or three bands of less porous paper, which acts as a “speed bump,” slowing down the burning of a cigarette.
Drew Saplin, a radio-television-film junior, bikes four miles to and from school every day, ending with a steep hill. He caps the ride with a “victory” cigarette.
“I, in fact, named the hill the reason to quit because it was so hard to bike up that hill when I was smoking,” Saplin said.
Saplin was hospitalized because too much coffee and cigarette smoke ate the lining of his esophagus, creating a gaping hole. Saplin said he understands that the risks of smoking go beyond his health but do not motivate him enough to quit.
“It’s really hard to start a fire with a cigarette. You have to have these specific conditions in order for the fire to start,” Saplin said. “I don’t really think it’s that big of a deal.”
Health risks will not increase because of the additional paper rings, according to a study conducted by the Harvard School of Public Health.
In Canada, fire-safe cigarettes are sold nationwide. In the U.S. 16 states have already started selling fire-standard-compliant cigarettes, including California and New York. Texas and 20 other states passed legislation to start selling the new cigarettes. Two states filed for legislation in 2007 and five states in 2008, while six states have yet to file legislation.
Austin Fire Inspector Larry Youngblood said that many times people fall asleep smoking and forget to extinguish the cigarette, causing imminent danger to everyone in the household. Youngblood illustrated to hundreds of elementary school students the danger of leaving a cigarette unattended by creating a mock fire in a display home at the Travis County Expo Center on Nov. 7.
“Most people who die from cigarette-induced fires aren’t the ones who were smoking,” Youngblood said.
Let see, he raised the price of tobacco to raise more money for the failing education system in texas, That was stupid, should be going to health care if nothing else. So now the latest stupidity, mess up the cigarettes for millions to save 10 civilian idiot from death and 35 civilian idiots that should have kept an eye on the 10 civilian idiots and 10 firefighter injuries that is purely occupational hazard. So, who pays for all this? The smokers? Wrong. The school kids. Price won't stop a smoker, taste and illness will. So the state will lose big money and give idiot Perry a reason to explain a whole new batch of idiots from the public school system.