Fire-Safe Cigarettes are Required in 11 States

Beginning with January 1st, 2010, Smokers from Georgia and ten other states would have to smoke only fire safe cigarettes, specially made to extinguish shortly after they are not smoked, according to the latest legislation that has entered into legal force on the first day of 2010.

Among the states that implemented similar legislations last week are Arkansas, Michigan, North Carolina, Virginia, Alabama, Nebraska, Tennessee, Missouri, Florida, New Mexico, South Carolina and Georgia. As of present moment of time 43 US States already implemented the law requiring the usage of FSC cigarettes. The first state to introduce such law was New York that banned the use of non fire safe smokes more than six years ago.

The National Coalition for Fire-Safe Cigarettes reported that Nevada, North Dakota, Mississippi and Ohio would implement fire-safe law later this year, while Missouri and South Dakota would require FSC cigarettes on January 1, 2011. That makes Wyoming to be the only American state to lack such a law at least in consideration.

While in the US, such issues are passed on the state legislature level, Canadian federal authorities went one step further by imposing a nationwide requirement on fire-safe cigs on October 1, 2005

In conformity with the coalition report, cigarette-related materials are the leading cause of fatal blazes, and mainly home fires that takes away nearly a thousand lives every year across the country and leaves more than 3.000 people injured. In addition, such fatal fires cost billions dollars in damages. At the same time, fire-safe cigarettes are designed to reduce this incidence, as they burn out in 75 percent of time they are not smoked.

David Sutton, senior communications manager for Altria, the owner of Philip Morris Usa, the leading tobacconist across the nation declared that in production of fire standards compliant cigarettes they have used diminutive very thin layers of specialized paper that are virtually put under the white wrapping of the cigarette. When the lit tip of the cigarettes reaches one of those layers, they work as a speed bump and reduce the rate of burning.

Many cigarette makers have backed the switch to FSC cigarettes. The Altria spokesman admitted they have joined forces with state legislatures to help them implement the standards identical to the New York one. Sutton added that the company plans to move to the production of fire safe cigarettes only by next month, indifferent of state regulations. Philip Morris manufactures America’s number one cigarette Marlboro, Virginia Slims, L&M and other brands.

The majority of states permit cigarette retailers to sell their stocks of non fire-safe cigarettes until the exhaustion of these stocks.

However, many smokers are not happy with the changes, as they state that new cigarettes provoke headaches and indisposition. They have even created an organization that is collecting signatures to call of the law.

David negated the assertions that FSC cigarettes differ in any feature from the conventional cigarettes, saying that they are made of the same tobacco blend and contain no additional chemicals. He added that the only difference is the rings on the paper, which will work to save lives.

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