Fire deaths in Colorado could be reduced if a bill to mandate so-called fire-safe cigarettes becomes law, supporters of the measure say.
Senate Bill 26, sponsored by Bob Hagedorn, D-Aurora, would require cigarettes sold in Colorado after July 31, 2009, to be made to standards that cause them to burn out if a smoker isn’t puffing on them.
The cigarettes have paper bands along the rod of the cigarette that act as fire speed bumps, eventually extinguishing the lit end when not inhaled.
Twenty-two states already have passed bills mandating the safer cigarettes. Colorado is among 10 states where lawmakers are considering bills to mandate the standards.
A Senate committee heard testimony on the bill Wednesday from fire-safety advocates but did not take action. Hagedorn said that he was still working on some legal definitions in the measure and that the committee probably would take it up for a vote next week.
He said the bill could prevent deaths in homes caused when people leave a cigarette burning and could thwart massive fires in beetle-kill forests.
“We know that every year there are multiple deaths caused by unattended cigarettes,” he said. “We’ve had the occasional fire caused by someone tossing a cigarette out the window.”
New York was the first state to adopt the new cigarette standards in 2004.
Lorraine Carli, spokeswoman for the National Fire Protection Association, which has been pushing for the safer cigarettes, said between 700 and 900 Americans each year are killed in fires caused by cigarettes. About a quarter of those people are not smokers, she said.
“We can make a significant dent in the fire problem by switching to this particular kind of cigarette,” she said.
In Colorado, from 2005 to 2007, there were 4.7 deaths a year on average in fires where cigarettes were the known cause of ignition, according to the state Division of Fire Safety.
Tobacco companies are not against the bill. Spokesmen with RJ Reynolds Tobacco Co. and Philip Morris USA said their companies don’t oppose regulations that are in line with standards other states have adopted.
In fact, Reynolds last year announced that it was converting all of its brands to the new fire-safety standards by the end of 2009.
David Howard, a Reynolds spokesman, said that in states where the new cigarettes are sold, smokers haven’t seen higher prices.
