Safe Smoking

A bill from the Idaho Legislature went into effect Wednesday, April 1, requiring all cigarettes to be "fire safe cigarettes."

Often referred to as low-ignition, these new cigarettes have extra bands of paper inside them that helps extinguish them when left unattended. Thus, if your cigarette is not consistently inhaled it will extinguish itself.

According to Wikipedia "Problems with fire safe cigarettes have been voiced by some consumers. It has been observed that in order for a fire safe cigarette to stay lit, the smoker has to drag harder and more often. As a result, it is more likely that the end of the cigarette will burn down too fast, potentially creating a hazard in its own right. .... Fire safe cigarettes are produced by adding bands of EVA (ethylene vinyl acetate) to the cigarette paper during manufacturing, in order to decrease burn rate at the bands. The combustion toxicity of EVA has not been studied to any extent, but combustion byproducts are known to include carbon monoxide and unknown hydrocarbons."

RJ Reynolds brand cigarettes are fire-safe cigarettes, as shown by the "FSC" markings on the boxes.

Idaho joins more than 35 states with legislation or pending legislation mandating fire-safe cigarettes.

According to the National Fire Protection Agency, cigarette-ignited fires are the leading cause of home fire deaths in the United States, killing 700 to 900 people annually. Thus, unattended cigarettes extinguishing themselves could save lives.