Fire safe cigarettes -- UPDATE

I'm bringing legislation to the House Rules committee today that will require all Arkansas retail locations to sell only fire safe cigarettes to consumers. A fire safe cigarette has a reduced propensity to cause fires, because it contains a couple of "speed bumps" of less porous paper that will self-extinguish if left unattended. Cigarettes are a leading cause of home fire fatalities and property damage in the United States, killing 700 to 900 people - smokers and nonsmokers alike - per year. It's the number 1 cause of civilian fire deaths in the United States. A similar bill failed in the Arkansas House in 2005.

Fire safe cigarettes are already required in neighboring Texas and Oklahoma, and Louisiana and Tennessee have already passed legislation and are awaiting the effective date. In all, 38 states plus the District of Columbia have passed this legislation, and it is already effective in 21 states. Here's a rundown of the legislation by state.

To localize this, there were 61 cigarette fire deaths in Arkansas in 2004 -- that's 2nd only to Mississippi in per capita cigarette fire deaths. The turn-of-the-century building my brother and I bought and renovated in downtown Texarkana caught fire back in 1952 due to a cigarette left unattended, killing three:



Update: The bill received a Do Pass from the committee and will be heard on the House floor tomorrow.