The NFPA’s Fire-Safe Cigarette Campaign
In this segment of the National Fire Protection Association Podcast, we focus on the Fire-Safe Cigarette (FSC) campaign. Already a majority of states have passed FSC legislation to require manufacturers to produce and market only cigarettes that adhere to an established fire safety performance standard.
NFPA President Jim Shannon answers questions about our organization’s involvement in the FSC campaign and why the fire service played such a crucial role.
We also hear from three state officials involved in FSC enforcement, Paul Martin the acting chief at New York’s Bureau of Fire Prevention, Vermont’s Assistant State Fire Marshal Robert Howe, and Anita Philips the license and permit services manager with the Oregon Fire Marshal’s office.
Please send any suggestions, questions or comments, to: podcast@firehouse.com.
Related Links
• The Coalition for Fire-Safe Cigarettes
• Daily News on the FSC Blog
• Video: Jim Shannon’s Introduction to NFPA’s FSC Campaign
• State-by-State Action on Fire-Safe Cigarettes
• Model Legislation
• About Fire-Safe Cigarettes
• The U.S. Smoking Material Fire Problem
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I wonder why you don’t push for fire safe candles. It is my understanding that they are a major cause of house fires. Why arn’t they made to go out every five minutes or so?
I agree with John. Isn’t it going a bit far? You have to be doing pretty well to ignite a major house fire with a cigarette. Most are from candles and electrical faults.
I have just learned about Fire Safe Cigarettes today 11/14/08.
I am furious. I thought I was going out of my mind. I am a smoker. I love it. Just enjoy a good cigarette.
The last 6 months or so I hate my cigarettes. They don’t draw right, they smell bad, they suck, well they don’t suck. They put themselves out while I am smoking them. The ash on the end of the cigarette sometimes disappears. I find myself looking at my clothing and the floor to make sure I did not knock off the end on the floor.
I also find a straw like substance sticking out of the cigarettes.
According to what I am hearing on this web site.
http://dynamic.firehouse.com/broadcast/2008/09/25/the-nfpas-fire-safe-cigarette-campaign/
Billions of words are flying all around America regarding cigarettes. Apparently Millions and Millions of dollars have been spent ruining my cigarettes.
So Do I get safe matches. Maybe we can have matches that every third match doesn’t light. That will also save lives. Also Cigarette lighters that only ignite every 5th time.
It seems all of this is to save lives. 500 to 700 lives per year.
I have news for all of you. Some smuck in a trailer is going to light himself on fire anyhow.
The USA has so many problems that are HUGE, not one second should have ever been spent on this topic let alone demand the cigarette industry to suffer this remanufacturing of it’s product.
There is policing of the retailers, etc. Wow. What does that cost us? Then we polce the counterfiters. Thank god for the huge taxes on cigarettes we can take that money and turn it around on
I want this organization to move on to the cracker industry. Lets make Ritz crackers re manufacture Ritz Crackers so every third cracker wont’ make over weight people grow bigger. Instead of saving 700 lives we’ll save millions of lives. Huge difference in the numbers. I can not believe intelligent people would spend one second on this stupid law. Let alone get 35 states to waste time on this. America needs dedicated people to work on important things. My cigarettes should not even be on the list.
Too bad all this talk isn’t spent on the 40,000 homeless people in New York City. But, I guess we can’t tax them to give the money back to lobby and fix that problem. Lets take that cigarette tax and lobby to save 700 people per year and screw up the entire tobacco industry.
Now please advise me as to who owes me a refund on every dollar I have spent of Safe Crummy terrible cigarettes? I am serious. I want every dollar back. I live in Pa. and am paying $60.00 a carton for a bad product. Somehow it’s not the cigarette companys fault the NFPA’s made them do this.
Hold on: Excuse me for a second: I have to re-light my cigarette, It went out. A truck driver told me the FSC cigarettes have three speed bumps in them. I just hit speed bump #2. As soon as this was told to me, I got furious, it’s not me its’s the cigarette, someone ruined my cigarette, I thought I got a few bad cartons. I thought at are 55 yrs old I was tired or just smoked out. Ahhhhhhh, It turns out It’s the NFPA.
People let it go…… Pick a cause… save the homeless, save the economy. Take this money and keep jobs in the USA. NO CHINA. INDIA. Bring the Jobs back give the kid coming out of high school a job. He can buy a car, then a house. and STAY the HELL OUT OF MY CIGARETTES. Dear NFPA, take all this effort and dmoney and something good. As I said, The smuck in the trailer is gonna burn down anyhow. Oh, and while your at it. 55 Miles an hour driving saves lives. Bring that back, What happened to that? It did save lives. Oops’speople want to drive fast. Ok, You can drive fast again? This is so stupid. WOW. Anyhow, thanks to all for screwing up my cigarettes.
Now, Where do I write for all of my money back? Seriously, I go about my business, working harder than ever in my life and I stop at the store pay way too much money for my cigarettes, and I have been getting screwed. I am buying inferior crap. It turns out I didn’t do anything wrong. It turns out the NFPA is behind my problem. With all respect, who is going to give a refund? I did nothing wrong here. I want my cigarettes or the cash………. Later
Thanks George Grexa, Greenville, Pa. 16125 Vetchking@aol.com, 724-589-5440
i agree with john as well. i think this is going a bit far, and as for the candle idea i believe candles burning are a more dangerous thing that a lit cigarette in an ash tray. i also feel like its the consumers responsibility to know and understand that cigarettes can lite things on fire but for the most part im sure people dont really put down their smoke if they are smoking it. thats just me i know i dont put mine down. i also feel like this should be our dicision no one elses
I would like to know who did the testing to make sure this man made additive to these cigarettes is not harmful to us. An unbios company would be the only right way to do this testing. We should be informed as to the ingredients in these cigerettes just as we are with food!
No kidding! A fricking men! This is a total waste of time and money! It is bad enough that our state(Iowa) raised taxes to make my cigarettes expensive, and that we now can’t smoke ANYWHERE but our own homes and cars, but now I am being policed on how I even smoke the damn things? Let’s take the alcohol out of beer, wine and other alcoholic beverages, then we can make sure nobody drives while impaired! Seriously, that makes more sense than what you have done to my cigarettes! IF I am so stupid as to lay down my smoke and burn myself up, then too bad for me, I made a stupid mistake. PLUS, I don’t know about the rest of you, but this happened to our state with VERY little coverage by the media, they just slipped it in there! Yes, smoking is bad for me, but it is MY choice, and I want my old ones back! What is next? For God’s sake people, use this time and effort on a REAL problem; feed the poor, Toys for Tots, shelters for the homeless…….
I agree with all the users above. Luckily I am a truck driver and can still buy my smokes in the few states that still have “real” cigarettes, but it looks like it will eventually be a nationwide thing.
When that happens, what will the states do for taxes and what will the states with cigarette manufacturing do with all the unemployed cigarette workers? Hmmmm. Let’s see…. after the US taxpayers bail out the banks, auto manufacturers, and every one else, they’ll be asked to bail out the tobacco industry (which I believe is very big in certain states) AND help out the rest of the states who suddenly are faced with less tax revenue due to the fact that most people will finally do what they thought they wanted them to do (quit)!
And guess what? The added taxes for bailing them out will also be shouldered by us smokers, so we lose, lose, lose, no matter what.
I, too, just learned about FSC on Sunday. I, too, had heard nothing about this via the media, although in all fairness, I try not to watch the news. I have noticed in the last week or so that my cigarettes taste really bad and leave me feeling unwell. I just looked up what they have done to make these cigarettes “fire-safe” and the site says it is just bands of different paper. I protest, unless this paper is laced with cyanide. The change in taste has to be more than paper. What are they not telling us? I agree that this will probably get more of us to quit smoking which is the goal, right? I mean in terms of the social opinion, we should not be allowed to smoke anywhere anyway. But they do not outlaw cigarettes even though smoking is the worst offense you can possibly commit. You are right, people will quit, I know I am going to now. I will not pay the ridiculous price to get little to no enjoyment. And hopefully, all of us will quit and put big tobacco out of business and along with it take big corporate donations out of the politicians pockets. That is a “change” I would love to see. Let freedom ring.
I am very much pissed off. I have been sick for about a week now, I thought it was the weather. Turns out its these damn FSC smokes. They suck shit, won’t even stay lit. Sorry that rhymed,[accident] anyways there are a few stores in my area that still sell regular smokes. I’ve had reg. cigs. for a couple days now and I feel alot better. But I can’t get reg. cigs. for much longer, I guess the new law goes into effect Jan 09 for Iowa. Why was this kept so quiet in the media? Who can we write to/call/vote for/email/or get in touch with to change this? Because it sucks. I know its a bad habit, I should quit, but I’ll be damned if I quit because the feds tell me I have to!! I thought this was America, but you can’t smoke anywhere anymore, and the only cigs. you can get taste like shit and won’t even smoke!! WTF!!! Can’t smoke at work, can’t smoke at the bar , can’t smoke at home, can’t smoke in the car. [if kids]. Where the hell can anybody smoke anymore? Please help!!! any info. is appreciated, Thanx
Lit cigarette don’t kill people - stupid people who fall asleep drunk while smoking, smoke in bed, or can’t take a second to make sure their smoke is out, KILL PEOPLE! FFS, when is this world going to start mandating some personal responsibility!
And if you’re going to force this on smokers, at the very least, make them enjoyable and not disgusting!
The NFPA’s Fire-Safe Cigarette Campaign, should read, brain dead fuckers that couldn’t find a real job.
When FSCs become nationwide, the closest thing to a “real” cigarette will be smoking Native American cigarettes. Unlike the popular brands that have dangerous chemicals in the cigarettes, including the “FSC ingredients,” Native cigarettes don’t go out on their own while you’re smoking it. And they have real tobacco in them. If you examined the inside of a Marlboro, even a “normal” Marlboro, you’ll see there’s no tobacco in it.
I agree the FSCs are a way to get smokers to quit smoking. But quitting smoking shouldn’t be an option if you really like smoking. You should switch to Native American brands instead. Brands that have nothing but tobacco in them. No chemicals and no peservatives in these cigs. And best of all, they’re not fire safe cigs either.
Oh yeah, a carton of every Native cigarette brand is only 14-16 bucks each.
You can learn more about the different Native brands at this site.
http://blackhawktobaccoshop.com/
I too became ill after smoking the fsc, so I did some research. Here is what I have found. There is a higher level of chemicals in the fire safe cigarettes and these chemicals have been proven to be more toxic than regular cigs and cause increased health related problems for smokers! They have 13.9% more Naphthalene and 14% more carbon monoxide than regular cigs. Naphthalene is commonly found in mothballs and acute exposure can cause headache, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, confusion, anemia, jaundice, convultions, and coma!!! How can this be legal?? Someone is going to get seriously ill from this and then have a major lawsuit against everyone involved in sneaking this law in on us! At this point I can still cross the border into North Dakota (100 miles) to get non fsc cigs but that won’t be for much longer! Something has to be done about this. Drunk drivers kill more people every day in this country than cigarette related fires do! Why not an alcohol that has a chemical in it to reduce drunkedness?? All smokers really need to band together to reverse this stupid law! Non smokers screamed loud enough to get a law against smoking in bars now we need to scream louder against this law that is endangering our health and perhaps our lives!
I think this law is a good thing, safety wise…I just feel like as smokers, we should’ve been given some kind of heads up. Smoking is already bad enough for our health and we know this, and still we choose to smoke. My only complaint is the extra chemicals in our cigarettes, that are more hazardous and toxic that we were and still are unaware about. Theres gotta be a healthier way to make fire safe cigarettes and by healthier, I mean less fatal!?
Morons - cigarettes are supposed to burn. May you burn in hell.
I too became ill and did not know what was causing my illness. Before I finished the second pack I had figured it out. I have not smoked another since I figured out what was going on. They are THAT toxic, I am a chronic smoker–but I will not smoke them. I Called Phillip Morris and complained, sent their toxic cigarettes back to them and am still waiting for my “reimbursement” check. I encourage everyone to complain to them too, along with local, state, and federal government. They won’t listen, but we need the documentation. There must be one honest lawyer in this country who would lead a class action lawsuit, right?
The NFPA sounds to me like a bunch of college educated idiot’s, why don’t you dumb ass’s try some real work instead of dressing up in your suit’s and tie’s and sitting around and running your mouth’s!! All you fucker’s must be non-smokers, but I bet most of you drink!! I want drunk safe beer then!! Let’s have it!! You will not get away with this bullshit!! I’ll bet on it!! Can’t wait to hear about the lawsuit!!
Wow, not one intelligent response so far. Oh well.
We have people with bleeding throats, sore throats, new cases of asthma, and all because the government needs to step in AGAIN! It’s funny but the other day I put a cigarette down in the ashtray when I went to answer the phone. When I came back, it was still burning, all the way down to the filter. Yes, I checked. It was an FSC cigarette. So much for the safety. It will go out while I’m holding it, but not when I lay it down? How is that safer? My husband still burns his shirts, but has to light a cigarette three or four times while he’s driving, and no, he isn’t good at multi-tasking!!
As the others here, I have had several weeks now of respiratory and sinus problems. Last nite, I Googled “cigarette won’t stay lit burning lips” - and well, here I am with FSC.
A bit of research shows James Shannon to be a lawyer and was a politician for a while. I’m not sure he is the primary motivator - probably just a figurehead for the NFPA org.
There has to be a money trail somewhere. And, there has to be some level of strategy in quietly pushing this through to the states. The Feds wouldn’t take up the issue. And, again, somebody somewhere is making money on this.
I am fine with dumping the cigarettes. But, the high level strategy for predicting the reactions is indicative of manipulating a product for financial gain. Don’t think for one second that FSC has not been well planned and executed unless there was substantial profit!
Lastly, any day you think that your health or vote or life is more important as compared to the potential of making large sums of money - is the day you should have “stupid” or “ignorant” tattooed to your forehead.
This IS about MONEY.
these cigarettes have almost started more fires for me than ever. every time i have to re-light them, more embers fall from the cigarette and get everywhere. thanks for screwing another one up for the team.
Fighting for Safety
Your Couch Is Caught in a Flammable Regulatory Battle Between the Chemical and Furniture Industries
By Annys Shin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, January 26, 2008; D01
Since its inception, the Consumer Product Safety Commission has grappled with how to reduce the number of deaths and injuries from accidental fires. It chose to tackle the problem by crafting a regulation to make upholstered furniture less flammable. A record 14 years later, a rule is heaving into sight, with a final vote possible later this year.
If the regulation is approved, it will end a protracted battle among a far-flung set of interests. The story behind the rule and why it took so long offers a glimpse at the constraints under which the CPSC operates. Hemmed in by jurisdictional dictates and sometimes hampered by a lack of clear scientific evidence, the commission became caught in the middle of warring industries. It became increasingly preoccupied with finding a compromise, and, at times, not able or inclined to impose its will on the voices shouting to be heard.
Those voices included fire marshals recruited to fight fire-safe cigarettes, a Berkeley biochemist who suspected her couch poisoned her cat, a group of Mississippi furniture makers, and an energetic ex-tobacco lobbyist who relished hardball tactics.
READ THE REST OF THE ARTICLE HERE:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/25/AR2008012503170_pf.html
SIGN THE PETITION HERE to Repeal FSC:
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/repeal-fire-safe-cigarette-laws
A. The Harvard School of Health reported that when comparing NY Cigarettes (FSC) versus Regular Cigarettes, the FSC cigarettes produced 13.9% more Naphthalene and 11.4% more carbon monoxide than regular cigarettes.[1] Naphthalene is commonly found in moth balls, and exposure in high amounts can result in %u201CSymptoms of acute exposure include headache, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, malaise, confusion, anemia, jaundice, convulsions, and coma.%u201D
b. Phillip Morris USA has reported that the Adhesive ethylene vinyl acetate and polyvinyl acetate are used in the non-tobacco ingredients of cigarettes produced as a Side-seam adhesive. However, Phillip Morris USA fails to distinguish the differences in levels between regular and FSC cigarettes. The amount does not exceed .6 % combined.[3] Since additional layers of paper are used in FSC cigarettes, more adhesive is needed in the form of ethylene vinyl acetate.
I have noticed that the FSC “paper” makes the cigarettes taste more nastier than usual. I also heard that the tobacco compaines have added an extra “ingredient” to make the cigarettes more safer. That’s bull! My husband and brother-in-law wants to quits smoking because they have been feeling more congested that normal. I still don’t understand what’s so “great” about FSC! Someone please explain it to me!!
Why does this coalition think that adding more of a deadly chemical will save lives? The absurdity of it all suggests two things: one is monetary gain. Who’s benefiting? Obviously not the consumer. And second, are they really that ignorant and oblivious? Coalition news flash if you add more of a deadly chemical you are actually going to increase fatalities. Not to mention having to relight the cig so many times thats more times the hands are off the steering wheel, more embers falling all over the place, etc. Common sense demands it be known that this is the worst idea I’ve ever heard of in legislation… no wonder it was snuck through by lobbyists. God I hate lobbyists…
I am a smoker. I live in Oklahoma. I have now been subjected to the supposedly “fire safe cigarettes” and I can assure you these cigarettes are the biggest JOKE that I have ever seen. The flames, sparks, and falling embers happen with greater frequency with EVERY puff you take compared to any previous danger from being left unattended in an ash tray or falling asleep with one in your hand. These things burn holes in everything no matter how careful you are trying to be because the paper they are made of is unpredictable. Especially when you have to repeatedly light the cigarette just to smoke it. Each relight is unpredictable . . . one time the paper at the end will shoot up a flame that burns your hair, or the next time it will explode like fireworks and send sparks flying in all directions, or a fireball will just fall into your lap! Yeah buddy . . . this is going to be REAL SAFE for those of us who are driving down the road now and have to dodge those smokers who are in process of re lighting, get a shower of sparks, and the distraction causes them to cross the center line and hit us head on! I wonder what the death related MVA stats will be a year from now due to these SAFER cigarettes? Fewer deaths in one area, but increased deaths in another? How can that be safer? Not to mention all the health related problems that are cropping up after smoking just one or two packs of these horrible things. FSC’s are NOT safe for anyone!
Ironic isn’t it . . . drunk drivers who have killed people in the past still get to drink the liquor of THEIR CHOICE. I don’t see the government forcing “drunk proof” liquor on anyone. And, the stats for people killed by drunk drivers is far greater than those killed by smoldering cigarettes.
Well, these new FIRE SAFE CIGARETTES will help change those stats soon enough . . . they’ll have a whole new category to pull stats from.
Oh, and in case the thought hasn’t crossed your mind yet . . . I don’t have any stats on the number of people that drink and drive who also SMOKE while they drink and drive. Now, think about this . . . as if driving home drunk isn’t challenge enough, now our state has made it a “law” that these drunk drivers will have to SMOKE these spark flying, fire ball dropping, FIRE SAFE CIGARETTES too, giving them an even greater challenge to make it from point “A” to point “B” without killing someone.
When a loved one of yours is killed by someone who was just trying to keep a FIRE SAFE CIGARETTE from setting his hair on fire or set his car seats on fire and slammed into your vehicle in the process . . . be sure to THANK your STATE government! Yes Sir, by golly our government saved one more person from being killed in a house fire, but didn’t do much to save that little girl in the car did they?
Well, I think that as more and more smokers find the exit and quit smoking philip Morris as well as RJ Reynolds will see the effect as well as feel it. ad without delay spearhead a reversal o this totaly proposrerous farce. What shithead let this pass anyway.
And a warning folks the chemicals in the SC are far more dangerous to your health than a normal cigarette.
Due to this fact i am now an exsmoker that may start again if my smokes are put back the way i like em and left alone, (hear that phillip morris..??). Fix our somkes or feel the pinch. They are gonna require we wear bibbs when we eat too next.Azzholes
Fire Safe Cigarettes Aren’t
The cherry falls off and burns whatever it falls on, including your lap, your car seat, your newspaper…
Plus, FSC’s are making people sick all over the nation, google FSC complaint.
This is the Law of Unintended Bad Consequences in action, along with arrogant, tyrannical despots in government which brought us smoking bans in businesses across the country without any choice.
Repeal FSC laws NOW!
bk
Stupid people start fires with whatever is available to them. You can’t legislate stupidity! This is just another example of a small group of individuals who get off on running other peoples lives for their own satisfaction. We have over 500 fires a year, just in the community where I live. These damn FSC’s have been making me sick. Where is the FDA approval that these things don’t create a larger health hazzard?
Two weeks ago, I ordered the materials to assemble my own cigarettes. I now have a smoke like I used to enjoy before they started adding chemicals. (I’m 55) My choking and gagging went away in three days.
It takes a little time but, it is well worth it. Also, at less than $2.00 a pack they screwed themselves out of the taxes I was paying.
When is the silent majority going to wake up and realize that our govt is in our homes, our cars, our choice of what we should eat, our cigarettes, things that are legal personnal choices.
Hell, if we pass a law to put arsenic in alchohol then we wouldn’t have to worry about returning to prohibition.
Scott Southeastern PA
Why not get a law to make only fire safe crack pipes? That might change the minds of the poeple making these decisions and screwing up the smokes!!!
I agree with a lot of what others have already written. When you relight, the end will sometimes flare up. I have had the lit end fall off while smoking. My cigarettes now taste terrible and I almost always have a scratchy throat. I have a few packs left and I will smoke them. But after the last cigarette in the last pack is put out, that will be my last one. I am sure if some self rightous non smoker reads any of these posts, they’ll be thinking how dumb we all sound, but let them start picking up my share of the taxes that won’t be collected on the cigarettes I will not be buying in the future.
Notice:
The “FSC” initials on “fire safe” cig packs does NOT mean Fire Safe Cigarette.
Nope… It means “Fire Standard Compliant”. The “standard” apparently referring just to the “speed bumps”, period.
And, apparently, no “fire safe” law has banned cig industry use of Burn Accelerants. “Fire Safe” cigs may still have Burn Accelerants!…the citrates, phosphates, calcium carbonate, etc.
No…that’s not on any ingredients label. Nothing is. (Many cigs don’t even claim to contain tobacco! We are to ASSUME that.)
Funny that legislators didn’t notice that confusion is unavoidable here with that “FSC” thing.
People might think that the ‘fire safe’ laws created Fire Safe Cigarettes. Wrong.
A mailing from one cigarette firm put it in writing…that these cigarettes are NOT fire safe.
See…if you still have a fire somehow and sue, cig industry lawyers will just say that THEY never said the cigs were fire safe. If you got that wrong idea from TV or some public officials…tough cookies.
In the first 37 days of 2009 we already have 13 dead from fire-related causes. That’s twice as many as the same time last year, and one-third the total of 2008. Something tells me the new cigarettes aren’t working!
I though it was just me, but good to find that I’m not the only one with a scratchy throat and feeling more congested. I am a mild smoker of 5-6 a day, but I’m going to show my displeasure by quitting. RJR and the state of MN can go look somewhere else for revenue. The nanny state I live in succumbed to yet another stupid regulation that made my bad habit worse for me, and taste lousy too. Back to sunflower seeds….
I was pleased to see others were having the same issues as i am. The cigarettes has lost most of the flavor we enjoy and the flare ups are often alarming. As most of you have described we are fully aware of the dangers of smoking but enjoy a good flavorful smoke. This new “device” leaves much to be desired. I too have gone to rolling my own and have stocked up on speed bump free papers. What can we do as a group to have this reversed? What’s next - water speed bumps in our beer so that we don’t get drunk?
I THINK WE ALL KNOW THIS IS TOTALLY ABSURD ALTERATION OF A PRODUCT THAT IS TOO HEAVILY TAXED.
Everyone knows that in America the only way you can effectively vote is with your dollars. They will continue to put these chemicals in your cigarettes banking on the fact that you will still buy them because you are hopelessly addicted to nicotine. As long as they are turning a high enough profit they will continue to do so. Your only recourse is to send your money and their tax dollars to the Native Americans making plain tobacco cigarettes, roll your own or if you have the will power quit. Have all your friends do this as well. When profits drop enough they will change them back. Politicians will listen only when it hurts their bottom line. Everyone knows they could care less about your health if it makes them money. Greed and ignorance could cause what is tantamount to a Holocaust unless this happens. These cigarettes are EXTREMELY Dangerous!
The use of “speed bump” is used as a straw man argument to distract from the use of chemicals added to the tobacco. The tobacco in the cigarette is dried out and will turn to powder when crushed and will smell strongly of moth balls. Also,recently this chemical has been added to some “roll your own” tobacco,more so with menthol. Note that real fresh tobacco should not turn to a dried out powder when crushed and should not have a chemical smell. And consider how the change was applied without warning or notice. The rich smoke expensive cigars without poison - check it out yourself.
I cannot believe what I am hearing/seeing on here…..my hubby and I are heavy smokers…..for the past month we have been so sick….sore throats- so sore one night I was nearly in tears….couldn’t sleep the pain was so bad….the congestion is horrid…I am hacking up so much more, blowing my nose all the time. We thought maybe we were constantly catching something from people like the flu,cold,strep…but, it does make sense now. My hubby tried telling me it was the smokes…and now, I believe him, with so many others having the same complaint. It’s like going thru slow withdrawl each day…..never getting my fix of nicotine,not getting the deep seize in my lungs I so badly crave, my congestion coming on as if my body is cleansing itself as if I had stopped smoking and then slipped again and again.No wonder there is such sore throat….you have to toke so hard on these worthless things and still get no satifaction. We have had enough. I am starting to think I will get more nicotine and such out of patches and the gum. I have tried to quit 4 times now, and gotta say, this time might be the magic time…cause my full flavored cigs. are like smoking ultra-lites! Like puffing air, giving me stomach upset. I am in my 30’s, been smoking 20 years..up to over 2 packs a day…and each time the cost of smokes goes up I say I am going to quit….but, this takes the cake. And in another month or 2 they are raisng the cost and tax again…….what? are the cig. manufacturers placing in nicotine patch stock now to convert over? They know this is going to be another thing that gets some to stop smoking….. Why doesn’t my voice count on this issue? I am the one paying for my smokes, smoking my smokes, gonna possibly die from it….why isn’t it my choice? When we were banned from public places like restaruants and such, we kindly moved it outside,some of us in Minn. freezing our tails off, they wanted more money from something allready putting smokers in lower living bracket….but, I gave my extra hard earned bucks…for what? A smoke that ain’t even a smoke anymore? We are slated to quit tommorrow……got the patches and gum….was suppose to be today…but, of course….these lousy cigs, make us crave even more than our usual…hubby is tired of driving to different towns trying to find places that have any non-FSC smokes left….we get hooked and the very companies we are loyal to don’t even fight to cut us some slack…truly, I want to stop smoking….and yet, quitting is so hard…I have failed each time….and being stuck in between now….quitting=huge hassle/withdrawl and so forth is intwined with being sick and craving if I fail and smoke anyway…..it’s crap….local city 13 miles away is having controversy over creating a new 3 million dollar liquor store…..the logic there is so beyond me anymore…..the city wants to create and run this…knowing drunk drivers kill gobs of people….and yet, that is ok..to back….knowing they will get more money from busting the drunk drivers…..we gave our government to much control and now we can’t get it back….
My husband and I have gotten migraine headaches, severe sudden onset coughing, choking phlegm and chest pains after smoking FSC. I received second degree burns on my breasts and burned the inside of my bra when the end fell off for no reason and went down my blouse. I contacted the Coalition and sent photos. I also took photos of an FSC that sat in my ashtray and burned to the ashtray grips without going out. I received a reply that according to product standards, there is a 25 percent fail rate allowed on them. If these jokers were making child safety seats they would be in prison. They are already dodging responsibility, as they are saying the tobacco companies have not changed their blends and there are no additives. Yet, on the Coalition blog, there is an article that is stating that these cigarettes are made from fire retardant paper and ADDITIVES. When they have the living crap sued out of them by a million sick and dying smokers, they will undoubtedly tell us all that FSC had nothing to do with it, and it is because we smoke in the first place. Evil, all of them.
I have been smoking for 40 years, and until the switch to FSC, I never had a cough or any problems with cigarettes: not so now. I also never had a fire, but the way the FSCs burn, it’s a challenge not to start one–and I do not mean while in bed (I do not smoke in bed); I mean everywhere else. THESE ARE NOT FIRE SAFE! THESE ARE FIRE HAZARDS in a way MUCH worse than the old cigarettes! They are also unacceptable for people to smoke, and whether anyone likes it or not, people WILL continue to smoke. And they will die a whole lot sooner because of FSCs.
It is unconscionable that no tests on the further impact to smokers’ health were conducted, as if smokers are simply expendable, as if all nonsmokers are perfect and risk-free to themselves and others in all they do, as if no nonsmoker has ever caused a fire.
Morever, some of us are grandfathered into this habit; I’ve been smoking since I was 14. I do not need strangers with well intended but totally irresponsible and dangerous agendas to change my lifestyle based on actions that neither I nor any smoker I know (and I know quite a few) have committed. FSCs represent a blind judgment of me, and a condemnation of me, by virtue of my simply smoking. These are charges I can’t even defend myself against.
How anyone involved with this FSC fiasco can sleep peacefully at night is beyond me. You have made people miserable and sick for nothing at all. WHY WAS THERE NOT SOME LESS INVASIVE EFFORT TO COUNTER FIRE PROBLEMS WITH CIGARETTES? Why not a public service campaign to discourage smoking when sleepy or to suggest safe methods of disposal? Why not large-print prominent fire warnings on the packages? There are MANY MANY ways to reach people without treating them like junkyard dogs.
Also, the absolutely SNEAKY way this change was carried out is an abomination in a land that is supposed to be open with information and free. Smokers need to rally. We really do. Myself, I had a chain-smoking grandfather who smoked from the age of 8 until he died in his 90s. He was happy. He caused no fires. Today, with FSC, he’d never reach his 60s.
http://www.topix.com/forum/business/tobacco/T2EIG851IPJGQ26DU
Mr. James M. Shannon and everyone behind this *thing* with the NFPA,
Will our personnel in the Army, Navy and Marines, and our new President, be exempt from being swiftly, severely hurt and/or exterminated by this if they don’t quit smoking, or will they get a break until they are no longer in our needed, important positions, or, how, exactly, does that work ?…
Will you, soon, and completely - just tell the truth.
Also, do the millions and millions of people in the states where this is coming, but hasn’t gotten there yet, get a warning and hopefully a vote, or, must they get the surprise attack, like the millions and millions of suffering in already established FSC states?
Please, tell the truth.
One more thing; with your forced - and snuck upon the public “Fire-Safe” cigarettes being so very much more of a fire hazard (lit ends regularly falling off, the bursting into flames upon being re-lit, etc.) than the former regular cigarettes, will you please explain yourself as a Fire-Prevention organization, on this. Please.
Giving you the bennifit of the doubt that you are not absolute fools and (or) cold blooded killers with an utterly amazing amount of blood on your hands, please just simply explain.
Again, please just tell the truth.
Safe cigarette? IT’S A JOKE.
(Let us see the survey on how many FIRES and
BURN INJURIES the SAFER cigarette causes!)
It is UNSAFER than originals.
Lit end falls off,constantly. REAL SAFE,HUH?
(Play hide and seek to find it, see if it is
going to catch something on fire)
Keep relighting, paper lights up in OPEN FLAME, right IN FRONT OF YOUR FACE.
Burns in ashtray, but goes out when smoking it.
TASTE = Horrible disgusting after taste
PRICING = higher than before
The people who came up with this GRAND IDEA, apparently had no knowledge of how dangerous their
NEW IMPROVED PRODUCT would be. Let’s see how long it takes for them to own up to this endangering MISTAKE.
SOLUTION : ROLL YOUR OWN, LIKE MY GRAMPA USED TO DO !
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mTXZVCOM0Y
http://www.newscientist.com/commenting/browse?id=dn3192
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/repeal-fire-safe-cigarette-laws
James M. Shannon, one day you will have to answer to God.
I am extremely aggravated about these new fire safe cigarettes. They taste worse than the stale cigarettes I was smoking while I was deployed to Iraq over this last year. I learned about them as soon as one of my buddies showed me the little FSC printed on the side of of the box next to the UPC. I find it bullshit that they had to destroy the taste of cigarettes and add extra chemicals to them. I am appalled by this new idea that some smartass in Washington though of. I am sorry but I didn’t spend a year overseas to come back and be disgusted by my cigarettes and also to feel sick due to the new chemicals added to them.
Goi to this website to stop these nasty, disguisting cigerettes.Put marlboro back in the saddle, and go to where the real flavor is. The old, not the new marlboro country.
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/repeal-fire-safe-cigarette-laws
It’s entirely up to the consumer to be responsible with products they choose to use. If someones burns their house down, well hey, thats their fucking problem. I am sick of the government trying to babysit America.
i am going to have these lab tested soon and compared to the regular ones… it doesnt save many lives at all, wonder why they would spend millions to make them safer for only hundreds of lives?? well if there so concerned with public health, why dont they regulate the mass poisons being put in there?? the truth is, they have just made them deadlier. they don’t care about health.. isn’t that obvious?? PURE TOBACCO DOES NOT CAUSE CANCER. smoking chemicals DOES. Im almost certain that these “safe” cigerettes will cause cancer at a quicker rate… what will you say, These new cigerettes gave me cancer faster?? everyone will laugh at you.. because they are known to cause cancer anyway..
Based on taxes, the government makes MUCH MORE money then the tobacco companies.. so who really owns them?? what happens when the government takes over industries?? Look at the banks.. they now have that sector controlled.. bail out the companies (basicly take them over) and to hell with the people who really need help. MORE and more people are loosing there houses after the “bank bail out” scam.. They have done this with cigerettes a long time ago.. Now, try growing your own tobacco.. you will be raided by the ATF and put in jail. Come on now, they even have a tobacco task force.. (atf) Time to move to a private island next door to the bast*rds that control this s*it. by the way, i am NOT a republican or a democrat.. evil is evil, no sides..
What are the Risks of Naphthalene and Vinyl Acetate?
NAPHTHALENE
On Naphthalene from the Department of Health and Human Services ATSDR:
“Exposure to naphthalene, 1-methylnaphthalene, or 2-methylnaphthalene happens mostly from breathing air contaminated from the burning of wood, tobacco, or fossil fuels, industrial discharges, or moth repellents. Exposure to large amounts of naphthalene may damage or destroy some of your red blood cells. Naphthalene has caused cancer in animals. Naphthalene, 1-methylnaphthalene, and 2-methylnaphthalene have been found in at least 687, 36, and 412, respectively, of the 1,662 National Priority List sites identified by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).”
(Also Google Naphthalene and learn more: It’s a carcinogen.)
VINYL ACETATE
Vinyl acetate causes “irritation of the eyes, nose, throat, and lungs of laboratory animals.” You can read this at
And what I found interesting is as follows: “There is no evidence that vinyl acetate causes cancer in humans. Vinyl acetate caused tumors in the noses of rats that breathed 600 ppm for 2 years. The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) has determined that vinyl acetate is possibly carcinogenic to humans (Group 2B).”
Notice how in the same paragraph, “there is no evidence that vinyl acetate causes cancer,” and yet the IARC determined it is “possibly carcinogenic.”
Read more at:
Thus, based on an hour of two of reading, you’ll learn that what has been added to FSC cigarettes is likely carcinogenic. So, I have two questions.
Why is the The Coalition for Fire Safe Cigarettes (and others?) getting away with stating: “FACT: There is no evidence that reduced ignition propensity cigarettes are any more harmful to health.” ()
And why with 43.4 million or more smokers in the U.S., are legislatures putting them at greater risk of death from smoking?
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