Letter to Australian State and Territory Police and Emergency Services Ministers
attending Police Ministers’ Council,  November 17 2006                                                           

November 14, 2006                                                                       

Dear Minister,                                                               

We are writing to urge you as a delegate to the Ministerial Council for Police and Emergency Management 
being held on November 17 2006,  to accelerate progress on Australia legislating to adopt and implement a 
national standard for reduced ignition propensity (“RIP”) cigarettes, sometimes referred to as reduced fire risk 
(“RFR”) cigarettes. These cigarettes are designed to meet a performance standard that causes a cigarette to 
be far less likely to burn down when not being smoked and thus greatly reduce the risk of fires caused by 
dropped or discarded cigarettes.

It is now 19 months since the Police and Emergency Services Ministers all agreed that a RIP standard should 
be developed, and 26 months since an expert report recommending that Australia should legislate to adopt 
such a standard was delivered to the Commonwealth Department of Health and Aging in August 2004.

In this time, six states of the USA have either implemented or legislated for mandatory RIP cigarettes, with 
another two (Wisconsin and Pennsylvania) having legislation pending (see table below). Canada implemented 
national legislation in October 2006.

Some argue that Australia should wait until data from other jurisdictions such as New York are available before 
deciding on whether to implement an Australian standard. Such a concern could only be satisfied after many 
years of implementation, as normal random variation in deaths would require a long period to have passed 
before a confident answer could be given.  

However, early data are already available for the state of New York. From January to June 2004, there were 17 
reported deaths from cigarette fires in New York, according to the Office of Fire Protection and Control.  From 
July 1 through December 31, 2004 there were 11 deaths from cigarette fires, a 35% decrease over the first half 
of the year.

These encouraging results are likely to under-estimate the true impact of RIP legislation because there is no 
national RIP cigarette legislation in the USA, and so many non-RIP cigarettes would be still being smoked by 
New York residents, being purchased outside the state.

We urge you to expedite the adoption of the standard that has been developed by Standards Australia and to 
then unite in supporting the introduction of a national law that would require all cigarettes sold in Australia to 
meet that standard. This is a simple piece of powerful public health legislation, fully supported by at least one 
cigarette manufacturer in Australia (Philip Morris), which promises to reduce deaths, burns, loss of property, 
animal life and bushland. 

Yours sincerely,

Professor Simon Chapman, University of Sydney; American Cancer Society  Luther Terry medal, 2003
Dr Matthew Peters, Chairman, Action on Smoking and Health Australia
Professor Ian Olver, CEO, The Cancer Council Australia
Dr Lyn Roberts AM, CEO, National Heart Foundation of Australia
Dr Russell Stitz, President, Royal Australasian College of Surgeons
Professor Napier Thomson, President, Royal Australasian College of Physicians
Dr Vasantha Preetham, President, Royal Australian College of  General Practitioners
Dr Mukesh Haikerwal, President, Australian Medical Association
Professor Michael Daube, President, Australian Council on Smoking and Health
Sir Gustav Nossal AC KtCBE, Australian of the Year 2000
Dr Fiona Wood AM, Australian of the Year 2005
Professor Ian Frazer, Australian of the Year 2006
Greg Mullins  AFSM, Commissioner, NSW Fire Brigades
Len Foster  AO, Chief Executive Officer, AFAC Limited
Lee Johnson AFSM, Commissioner, Queensland Fire and Rescue Authority
Jo Harrison-Ward, Fire & Emergency Services Authority of Western Australia (FESA)
John Gledhill AFSM, Chief Officer, Tasmania Fire Service
Bruce Mouatt AM, Director, NT Fire and Rescue Service
Phil Koperberg AO AFSM BEM, Commissioner, NSW Rural Fire Service
Grant Lupton, Chief Officer, South Australian Metropolitan Fire Service
David Prince, Chief Officer, ACT Fire Brigade