On New Year’s Day, laws requesting that the cigarettes sold in stores be all slow-burning and fire-safe came into effect in five states, Delaware, Iowa, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania and Texas having added to the other 17 states in which laws mandate fire-safe cigarettes.

 

Moreover, according to the Coalition for Fire-Safe Cigarettes, another fifteen states will have such laws going into effect this year or the following one.

Fire-safe cigarettes have their tobacco rolled in paper that is thicker than usual in two separate spots, which makes them go out on their own when they come to burn in those spots, if the smoker indulging in his habit doesn’t puff them.

 

Consequently, the measure is aimed at preventing the fires that could easily result from the fact that a cigarette is left unattended.

Nevertheless, opponents to the laws have argued that the fire-safe brands tasted differently and that the cigarettes would go out even before a person had finished smoking it.

 

The Coalition for Fire-Safe Cigarettes revealed that a number of 800 Americans lost their life annually in fires caused by cigarettes left unattended, adding that the death toll would decrease if at least half the states passed such fire-safe laws concerning the tobacco products.

 

Currently, the states that have implemented the laws are New York, Vermont, California, Oregon, New Hampshire, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Kentucky, Montana, New Jersey, Connecticut, Maryland, Utah, Alaska, Rhode Island, Minnesota and  the District of Columbia.

 

According to the Coalition’s website, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Colorado, Arizona, Washington, Louisiana, Hawaii and Wisconsin will have the fire-safe laws coming into effect this year, while in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and South Carolina, the laws will take effect in 2010.