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ASH Action: fighting fires caused by cigarettes |
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| Cigarette-caused
fires kill an average 14 people a year in Australia and cost around $80m
in damage. See
Chapman S and Balmain A, "Time to legislate for fire-safe cigarettes in
Australia" in MJA 2004; 181(6):292-293 or
mja
online There's evidence that many fires are started from lit cigarettes being thrown from car windows. See Chapman, Balmain in mja online. The NSW Fire Service estimates around 4% of all cigarettes thrown from car windows start some kind of fire. Cigarettes can also cause fires inside cars - sometimes with fatal results. The tobacco industry has lobbied against sensible regulation to introduce a standard for reduced fire risk cigarettes. Standards Australia have
released their standard for the testing of Reduced Ignition Propensity
(RIP) cigarettes – it’s now up to governments to write the standard
into law, mandating that cigarettes sold in Australia meet this
standard. Fierce opposition from some tobacco companies and their allies
is expected. See the
standard Cigarette
manufacturers put chemicals in cigarette paper to make them smoulder
longer. Cigarettes can easily be made more self-extinguishing by
removing or reducing these chemicals. Tobacco companies have known
for years that this is scientifically feasible but have covered it up.
See Gunja
M et al, “The case for
fire safe cigarettes made through industry documents” in Tobacco
Control 2002;11: 346- 53 RIP
legislation is law in the US states of New York, Illinois, New
Hampshire, Massachussetts, Vermont, Calfornia and Canada with laws
pending in a further 22 states. Compare the situation of RIP legislation in North America at
www.firesafecigarettes.org
But that hasn’t stopped British American Tobacco, one of the Big Two tobacco companies in Australia, telling the NSW Parliament's tobacco inquiry that such standards “don’t work in the real world.” See BAT Australia submission to NSW Tobacco Inquiry - p.17 Concerns
have been raised that the standard might cause cigarettes to be worse
for health than they are already – an untested and surprising
objection, since it’s been on the public record since March 2004 that
there is a 40-fold difference in nitrosamine (a known carcinogen)
content in Australian brands –
see Tobacco Control
article - but
nothing has been done to
require the companies to change this.
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Page last updated on 8/3/07 |