What Are Fire Safety Cigarettes and Are They Mandatory?

Fire Safety Cigarettes may be new to you but not to New York and Canada. In 2004 New York became the first state to make all brands of cigarettes FSC, or Fire Safety Cigarettes. Over the years the Coalition for Fire Safety Cigarettes has been lobbying the government to pass a law mandating all cigarettes in all states to be be made as "FSC."

Why "They" Made Fire Safety Cigarettes Mandatory

"They" refers to the Coalition for Fire Safety Cigarettes as well as the government. According to advocates for fire safety-smoking related property fires killed almost a thousand people each year and property loss and damage was extremely high due to unattended cigarettes causing house fires. The fire safety advocates also state that forest fires are often caused by lit cigarettes that have been carelessly thrown on the ground.

With fire safety cigarettes, an unattended or unused lit cigarette will extinguish itself quickly. This is made possible by adding several bands of thin cigarette paper throughout the cigarette. Once the embers of the cigarette reach these bands and a person does not "puff" the cigarette, then the cigarette will extinguish.

The Coalition for Fire Safety Cigarettes refute the reports that "they" lobbied for FSC to be mandatory in an effort to get people to quit smoking. They claim that with Fire Safety Cigarettes that 100% of the population will be safe from cigarette related fires. Various tobacco companies do not value this statement and a spokesman for R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company believes that statements such as this from the Coalition for FSC are misleading.

What is FSC, Fire Safety Cigarettes

Fire safety cigarettes are made to extinguish when not being puffed or when left unattended. Bands are placed within the paper of the cigarette tube that are less porous and act as a "speed bump" of sorts to slow down the burn of the cigarette and then extinguish.

Are FSC Dangerous to Your Health

Most all smokers know that smoking is bad for them, but, they are just simply addicted to them and cannot quit, even when they know that the chemicals in cigarettes are dangerous. There are approximately 2,000 chemicals in cigarettes and many people who have learned about FSC are worried about the "alleged" use of carpet glue in the new design of the cigarette paper.

Some people have reported headaches, sore throats, nausea, and other side effects from the new FSC cigarettes. Many forum postings about FSC on Yahoo Answers and other sites similar to it have users commenting on the side effects they have endured since FSC have become mandatory in their state. The majority complain of headaches and sore throats when smoking these types of cigarettes. Some smokers also complain about the different and undesirable taste of Fire Safety Cigarettes.

Do Fire Safety Cigarettes Actually Help Us Be More Safe

This is a tricky question because there hasn't been enough time passed since the implementation of Fire Safety Cigarettes to truly evaluate the effectiveness of lowering property and forest fires from cigarettes. Many smokers have reported that the new FSC is actually more of a fire hazard than regular cigarettes were because the thin paper causes more ash and the ash to fall, sometimes with embers left or worse the entire cherry of the cigarette to randomly fall out. The lit tobacco at the end of a cigarette is what many refer to as the "cherry". When the cherry falls out it is just a lump of burning tobacco and can cause burns and/or fires.

The general consensus of smokers is that they do not like Fire Safety Cigarettes but do not intend to quit smoking because of the mandatory new way of making cigarettes. They will, however, continue to complain about the taste and some of the side effects of the new way cigarettes are made. Some have started petitions to send to state leaders to stop the manufacturing of FSC and go back to the old way of making cigarettes.

Regardless of what the Coalition for Fire Safety says, no cigarette is a "safe" cigarette. Cigarettes contain thousands of chemicals that are dangerous to your health and with the addition of ingredients needed to make a fire safety cigarette; the cigarette may be more dangerous to your health than before. What is actually used to make FSC, chemically that is, is just speculation at this point. The validity of the Fire Safety Cigarettes actually reducing or 100% eliminating property and forest fires due to unattended cigarettes is still a matter of speculation.

Sources:

www.firesafecigarettes.org
www.stateline.org/live/details/story?contentId=493514
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090529223436AAqHEt1
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_safe_cigarette