Cigarettes and Tobacco News

Jun 11, 2006 -- Cigarettes are the leading cause of fatalities in home fires in this country, killing between 700 and 900 people each year, according to the nonprofit Coalition for Fire-Safe Cigarettes.

In New Jersey, 881 fires and five deaths last year were attributed to cigarettes, according to the state Division of Fire Safety.

That's why state lawmakers ought to approve a bill co-sponsored by Assemblymen Jack Conners, D-Pennsauken, and Herb Conaway, D-Burlington City, that would mandate that cigarettes sold in the Garden State have extra fire protections.

Modeled after similar laws in Vermont, Illinois, California and New York, Conners' bill would require cigarettes to be "quick extinguishing." A cigarette's paper would have bands that, when the cigarette burns down to that point, would make it burn out. The idea is to make sure unattended cigarettes don't slowly burn until they start a fire.

While the cigarette industry, including giant RJ Reynolds Tobacco Co., has been fighting this legislation in states where it's proposed, New Jersey lawmakers should ignore the industry's lobbying. If technology exists to make cigarettes less likely to cause fires, there's no reason it shouldn't be required. Making cigarettes less likely to cause fires would protect smokers and nonsmokers alike.

The Cigarette Fire Safety Act is scheduled to be debated in the Assembly Law and Public Safety Committee tomorrow.

The committee should quickly move the bill along and allow the full Assembly, and the state Senate, to approve it. This bill could do much to prevent deadly fires that put smokers, their families, neighbors and firefighters at risk.