Healthy Communities News

Smoking is and has been for years the leading cause of fatal household fires in Massachusetts. Annually, cigarette fires kill 18 people, injure 67 firefighters and 80 civilians, and destroy almost $8 million in property, according to a MASSPIRG report, "Where There's Smoking, There's Fire," that examined cigarette fires over an 11 year period. In 2000, smoking caused one-third of all residential fire deaths in the Bay State—more than space heaters, candles, arson, and cooking fires combined. Between 1990-99, 178 people were killed, 677 firefighters hurt, and over $75 million in property damaged because of fires ignited by smoking.

The most recent tragedy occurred on New Year's eve in Brockton, where a smoldering cigarette ignited a sofa mattress that claimed the life of 43 year-old Michael Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald was celebrating New Year's with his father and brother when the three men realized their living room sofa was smoldering from a dropped cigarette, Brockton fire officials said.

Another cigarette fire last week in Abington destroyed a converted three-apartment mansion. Luckily, an elderly woman was rescued from her third-floor apartment by fire fighters. State Fire Marshall Stephen D. Coan said the fire started "in or around a couch," most likely by a cigarette.

"The greatest sadness of these tragedies is that they could easily be prevented," said Eric Bourassa, Consumer Associate with MASSPIRG. "The technology to create self-extinguishing cigarettes is not new. The tobacco industry's own documents show that it began investigating the use of less porous paper to slow down and then extinguish a cigarette's burn as early as the 1970s. Yet Big Tobacco has continually delayed the implementation of this lifesaving technology."

Last week, New York Governor George Pataki implemented final regulations requiring smoldering, un-puffed cigarettes to self-extinguish. The measure, which takes effect June 28th, is expected to save hundreds of lives and hundreds of millions of dollars in property damage annually, while reducing firefighter risk.

Massachusetts has almost identical legislation pending before the Public Safety committee at the State House. Similar legislation successfully passed through committee and the State Senate during the last legislative session, but never made it out of the House Ways and Means committee.

"Just as cars are required to have seat belts and airbags, and as toy parts cannot be made too small for young children, so too should cigarettes be held to basic fire safety standards," said Bourassa.

The fire safe cigarette bill, known as the Moakley bill after late Congressman Joseph Moakley who was a champion of self-extinguishing cigarettes, would require all cigarettes sold in the Commonwealth to be manufactured in such a way that they would stop burning if no one is actively puffing on them.

Several brands of cigarettes already on the market—Merit, Eve Lights, More, Virginia Slims, and Capri—already use this fire-safe technology.

MASSPIRG is a statewide nonprofit, nonpartisan public interest organization dedicated to environmental protection, consumer rights, and good government. Click here for the full report.