Company to Test-Market Cooler-Burning Cigarette
Taking aim at the leading cause of fire deaths in the U.S., Philip Morris said Tuesday that it will test-market cigarettes designed to cut the risk of smoking-related fires, a move likely to increase pressure on rival firms to take similar steps.
Philip Morris said that within six months it will begin offering a test version of Merit cigarettes that burn cooler than standard smokes, making them less apt to ignite home furnishings. Company officials said tests have demonstrated the experimental cigarettes are 30% to 90% less likely to start fabric fires than cigarettes now on the market.
Fire safety advocates, who for more than two decades have fought unsuccessfully for fire-safe cigarette regulations, reacted with anger and hope.
It’s “a great first step,” said Rep. Joseph Moakley (D-Mass.), who has been pushing fire-safe legislation since 1979, when a family of seven in his district perished in a cigarette-caused fire. But Moakley added: “I wish it would have happened when I first filed a bill. Twenty thousand people would still be alive.”
Cigarette fires kill about 1,000 Americans per year--accounting for 1 of every 4 fire deaths--and cause thousands of injuries and millions of dollars in property losses, government statistics show. Many victims are careless smokers who allow burning cigarettes to roll off the lip of an ashtray onto bedding or a sofa, where the cigarettes can smolder at least 30 minutes before flames will erupt. Other victims are family members or neighbors, including scores of children.
Critics have long maintained that cigarette makers have the know-how to reduce the number of such fires. But the companies--aided by creative alliances with firefighters--have successfully fought regulation, arguing that they have been unable to come up with fire-safe smokes that are both technically and commercially feasible.
Philip Morris officials said Tuesday that the new development, in the works since 1988, involves attaching two ultra-thin paper bands around the wrapper of each cigarette.
The rings function like “speed bumps,” Senior Vice President John Nelson said, with the thickened paper reducing oxygen flow to the burning tip for a somewhat cooler burn.
Responding to complaints about the years it took to reach this point, Nelson said critics have tended to “underestimate the complexity and the difficulty here.”
He cited the challenge of changing a papermaking process that must produce enough paper wrappers for billions of cigarettes each year. “Making paper like this is a real technological hurdle,” Nelson said.
“Knitting together someone’s psyche after they’ve gone through the trauma of being burned and losing a loved one in a cigarette fire--that’s complex,” said Andrew McGuire, director of the Trauma Foundation in San Francisco, a group that has campaigned since the 1970s for fire-safe cigarettes. McGuire said he nonetheless welcomed the development, saying it should put pressure on the whole industry to cut the toll from cigarette fires.
Nelson said several cities are being considered for the test marketing, including Denver; Buffalo, N.Y.; and Hartford, Conn. He said the cigarettes must appeal to smokers or there will be no fire-safety benefit “because people wouldn’t buy the product.”
According to Nelson, company scientists have been unable to solve one problem that could lessen the new product’s appeal. On occasion, he said, the experimental cigarettes do go out, requiring smokers to relight them.
If the market tests are successful, however, Philip Morris “would certainly look at licensing this to our competitors,” Nelson said.
Rival cigarette makers responded with cautious optimism.
“If this ends up being acceptable to consumers and reduces ignition propensity, it could be very promising,” said Tommy Payne, executive vice president for external relations at R.J. Reynolds Tobacco, the second-biggest U.S. cigarette maker behind Philip Morris.
A bill pending in Congress by Moakley and 71 co-sponsors would direct the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission to develop a cigarette ignition standard and then give cigarette makers a year to bring their products into compliance. Congressional action would be required for such action because in creating the commission, lawmakers barred it from regulating tobacco. However, the bill is now in the House Commerce Committee, whose chairman, Virginia Republican Thomas J. Bliley, has vowed to block anti-tobacco measures, and it is given little chance of passing this year.
Over the years, the tobacco industry has used its influence to block similar legislation before Congress and several state legislatures. One way it has done that is by splitting the ranks of the fire service groups through generous donations to fire prevention projects and to certain groups.
A few years ago, for example, Philip Morris donated $500,000 to the National Assn. of State Fire Marshals to fund the purchase of 90,000 smoke detectors, which were distributed to poor people in 37 states.
But in a sign of Big Tobacco’s flagging support everywhere, some of its erstwhile allies, including the fire marshals, have turned against it.
In a statement issued Tuesday, the fire marshals association urged cigarette makers “to secure this new technology or create their own,” adding that “the taste and convenience of smoking is not more important than public safety.”
The group said that if the industry balks, a “new federal law requiring safer cigarettes must and will be adopted promptly.”
