The National Council Against Smoking has called for legislation to make cigarettes ”fire-safe”, in a bid to reduce the number of blazes sparked by stompies every year.
NCAS executive director Dr Yussuf Saloojee said this week that cigarettes were responsible for just over five percent of the 47 699 recorded fires in South Africa last year, only slightly less than those due to arson.
However, with only minor modifications, cigarettes — which are currently designed to carry on burning even when not being puffed — could be made less prone to start fires, he said.
The NCAS call comes in the wake of last week’s news of a $2-million settlement by American tobacco giant Philip Morris of a suit on behalf of a child who suffered disfiguring burns in a fire allegedly caused by a smouldering cigarette.
Shannon Moore, now a teenager, was 21 months old and asleep in her car seat when her mother’s parked Buick erupted in flames. In the suit filed in state court in Cleburne, Texas, lawyers for the girl blamed the fire on the burn-down-to-the-filter design of a Marlboro cigarette which they claimed the child’s mother inadvertently allowed to drop on the car seat when she got out of the car.
Saloojee said that according to South Africa’s national Fire Statistics, fires last year killed 290 people and caused damage totalling R1,2-billion.
Smoking caused 2 535 of the fires that firefighting units were called out to, most of them a result of discarded cigarettes setting fire to rubbish, grass or bush.
”Fires in the home with people falling asleep while smoking, or a cigarette setting furniture alight are the next most important category,” he said.
”Yet cigarettes can be made fire-safe.
”Cigarette manufacturers add chemicals (nitrates) to tobacco so that the cigarettes goes on burning when not being puffed.
”That spares smokers the nuisance of relighting — and boosts sales because more cigarettes end up being consumed.
”It also means that a lit cigarette falling onto upholstery, a mattress or the veld can smoulder undetected before bursting into flames.
”However, with only minor modifications, cigarettes could be made less prone to start fires.”
He said New York City was seeking to implement legislation to permit only ”fire-safe” and self-extinguishing cigarettes to be sold in the state.
”The NCAS urges the government to introduce similar laws in South Africa,” Saloojee said.
In the United States, fires caused by careless smokers account for at least one-third of fire deaths, or about 1 000 people a year.
Philip Morris USA, the country’s biggest cigarette manufacturer, launched a more fire-safe version of its Merit cigarette in 2000, though it has complained since then of a drop in sales of the brand.
The ”reduced-ignition-propensity cigarettes” have rings of ultra thin paper on top of the regular paper; they act as speed bumps to slow down the rate of burning.
However it has not used the technology in other brands.
Fay Kajee, spokesperson for South Africa’s largest tobacco manufacturer British American Tobacco, said almost all cigarettes were lit, smoked and stubbed out safely every year.
BAT had looked at, and would continue to look at, trying to make ”fire-safe” cigarettes. However this was enormously difficult as tobacco burned at between 600 and 900 degrees centigrade. In addition, there was no test or standard that would accurately predict whether a cigarette was more or less likely to initiate a fire if carelessly discarded.
”There is also the issue of unintended consequences as people may well be more careless with supposedly ‘fire-safe’ cigarettes, resulting in more damage or injury,” she said.
”For the moment we believe that responsible smoking behaviour, safety education and, in the case of furniture, flame retardancy, is important in reducing the risk of fire.
”This means that smokers should be responsible in disposing of cigarette butts and should not leave smouldering cigarettes unattended.” – Sapa