One of the most serious fire safety issues in America is the number of fires caused by cigarettes. Cigarette ignited fires are the leading causes of home fire deaths in the United States, killing between 700 and 900 people every year. Forty percent of the victims of these fires are age 65 or older. Furthermore, one out of four people killed in fires started by cigarettes are not the people whose cigarettes started the fires and many of the victims are children. These tragedies can be prevented.

Your company and other tobacco product manufacturers can take a simple, but important, step that will save lives of innocent victims and first responders all across the United States. On behalf of the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) and numerous other public safety, consumer and disability rights advocates, medical and public health practitioners, and other organizations, I am writing to encourage your company to begin producing and selling only reduced-ignition strength (“fire-safe”) cigarettes.

You have the potential to eliminate this public safety threat through the use of proven technology — fire-safe cigarettes. The technology needed to produce fire-safe cigarettes has been available for more than a decade. If your company were to use that technology to manufacture and market only cigarettes that have a reduced propensity for igniting fires, you would be taking a huge step toward protecting the public nationwide.

As you are aware, California recently passed legislation mandating the sale of fire-safe cigarettes joining New York, Vermont, and all of Canada in requiring the use of such cigarettes. Many other states are working to pass similar bills.

As I write this letter, the positive results of fire-safe cigarette legislation are already evident. A recent preliminary report out of New York (PDF, 14 KB) showed that the number of deaths caused by cigarette-ignited fires dropped significantly after implementation of that state’s fire-safe cigarette requirement. In addition, a recent Harvard School of Public Health study (PDF, 434 KB)  found that the New York mandate had no negative effect on cigarette sales in that state and no significant effect on the health risks of smoking from the new cigarette technology. The research shows that consumers have accepted fire-safe cigarettes. In fact, the Harvard researchers found no valid reason why cigarette manufacturers should not sell fire-safe cigarettes all across the country.

Because of the fire-safe cigarette requirements in California, New York, and Vermont, your company and other tobacco manufacturers are already obligated to produce fire-safe cigarettes for nearly 20 percent of the U.S. population and the entire population of Canada. It is time for tobacco companies to bring that same level of protection to everyone in the United States. This is an opportunity for you to save lives. On behalf of public safety groups throughout this country, I encourage you to put this important safety measure into practice and announce you will produce and market only fire-safe cigarettes all across the country at the same time the California requirement goes into effect.

This simple step will save thousands of lives. Please, for the safety of all Americans, take this step.

Sincerely,

James M. Shannon
President and CEO
NFPA